International Estate Planning

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Instructors: Professors Richard Duke and Denis Kleinfeld

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I.          COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

International Estate Planning (3 cr. Summer only): This course deals with the topics associated with the multinational estate.  Its relevance is highlighted by an increasing need by international tax planners to effectively deal with sometimes perplexing and often conflicting rules posed by different jurisdictions upon a single estate.  Although there is a heavy emphasis in this offering with respect to the traditional estate and gift duties, numerous other tax and non-tax matters will be discussed in detail, including issues of burial; the family office of private banks; using complex insurance contracts in estate planning as well as companies; annuity structures; charitable structures and family foundations; trusts and other family holding entities; tax treaty issues such as Estate and Gift tax treaties and the OECD model; amongst other issues.  This course is taught by Richard Duke, well known published author and practitioner.  Suggested prerequisites include a background in Estate and Gift or the course in this program, or Principles, Tax Treaties, and Offshore Financial Centers.

 

II.          COURSE OBJECTIVES

 

            The specific skills and understanding expected of students successfully completing this course would include the following:

 

            ·          An understanding of the terms and concepts more or less peculiar to the topic of international estate planning;

 

            ·          An ability to properly discern the issues material to the planning of an international estate;

 

            ·          An awareness of the ethical and malpractice concerns indigenous to cross-border planning; and

 

            ·          The capacity to satisfactorily analyze the problems presented and to justify any conclusions reached.

 

 

III.         SYLLABUS

 

            A.        Required Text (online version)

 

                        provided online

 

            B.        Week-by-Week Topical Breakdown

 

                        Week One

 

                        ·          Course Overview and Introduction

                        ·          Glossary of Terms and Concepts

 

                        Week Two

 

                        ·          Territoriality

                        ·          Nationality

                        ·          Domicile

                        ·          Residence

                        ·          Situs

                        ·          Immovables

                        ·          Movables

 

                        Week Three

 

                        ·          Double Taxation

                        ·          OECD Model Convention

                        ·          Local Taxation Concerns

                       

                        Week Four

 

                        ·          Principles of Succession

                        ·          Intestacy

                        ·          Forced Heirship

                        ·          Universal Succession

                        ·          Probate

                        ·          Hague Convention Concerning the International Administration of

the Estates of Deceased Persons

 

                        Week Five

 

                        ·          Valuation Principles

                        ·          Currency Fluctuations

 

                        Week Six

 

                        ·          Pertinent Income Tax Issues

 

                        Week Seven

 

                        ·          The Role of Wills

                        ·          Situs Wills

                        ·          Notarial Wills

                        ·          Mystic Wills

·              Hague Convention Providing a Uniform Law on the Form   

         of an International Will

 

                        Week Eight

 

                        ·          The Role of Trusts and Other Entities

                        ·          Fiduciary Administration

                        ·          Changing the Situs of a Trust

                        ·          Rule Against Perpetuities

                        ·          Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and  

                           Their Administration

 

                        Week Nine

 

                        ·          Community Property

                        ·          Usufruct

                        ·          Other Forms of Co-Ownership

            ·          Hague Convention on the Conflicts of Laws Relating to

                       the Form of Testamentary Dispositions

 

                        Week Ten

 

                        ·          Impact of Marital Agreements

                        ·          Health Care and Related Issues

 

                        Week Eleven

 

                        ·          Asset Protection Issues

                        ·          Governmental Expropriation

                        ·          The Revenue Law Doctrine

                        ·          Exchange of Information Agreements

 

 

                        Week Twelve

 

                        ·          Additional Factors Regarding Businesses

                        ·          Buy-Sell Agreements

                        ·          Mobile Executives

 

                        Week Thirteen

 

                        ·          Charitable Giving

 

                        Week Fourteen

 

                        ·          Ethical and Malpractice Concerns

                        ·          Unlicensed Practice of Law Issues

 

                        Week Fifteen

 

                        ·          Planning Opportunities

                        ·          Preimmigration Planning

                        ·          Expatriation

 

            C.        Final Examination

 

Research is conducted using the Internet WWW as well as, and most importantly, value added databases, such as

  • Lexis-Nexis US and foreign materials; Tax Treaties

  • BNA US and foreign materials; especially the country by country tax materials

  • BNA International

  • CCH International databases jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and its global treatises

  • CCH USA databases

  • Butterworths UK and international materials, especially Commonwealth/Caribbean case law

  • QuickLaw, especially Canadian and Commonwealth/Caribbean case law

  • Checkpoint-RIA-WGL-Gee, especially the treatises that explain planning techniques by topics, such as estate planning, for jurisdictions

  • Westlaw US and foreign materials

  • Tax Analysts, especially its superior tax treaty database, foreign law and global tax update magazines

  • Foreign Law Publishers - all foreign statues in English

  • World Compliance database

  • LLM and PhD thesis and dissertation databases

  • historical tax research using databases such as Hein and CCH

  • Matthew Bender databases

  • Lois Law e-libraries

  • amongst other databases that we subscribe to for you (see the external links in the classroom for details).

Also, the student should use the electronic book libraries and research the titles available.  Finally, the student is encouraged to use the law school or university library or another library through a University library exchange program.