BarbriSFCourseDetails
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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Family Law

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, January 14, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$197.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE course will prepare family law practitioners with best practices to represent divorcing parties who are interested in or seek to claim an interest in a spouse's trust. The panel will review how to answer the critical question of whether the trust is accessible as well as offer drafting methods to mitigate attacks on trust assets, explain how to attack a trust, discuss available remedies, and outline critical evidentiary issues in establishing a party's interest in the trust as a marital asset.

Faculty

Sean R. Weissbart
Partner
Blank Rome LLP

Mr. Weissbart is Vice Chair of Blank Rome’s Tax, Benefits and Private Client practice group. His practice focuses on all aspects of trusts and estates, including estate planning, estate and trust administration, charitable giving and the creation of tax-exempt organizations, and the representation of fiduciaries and beneficiaries in contested matters in the Surrogate’s Court. Mr. Weissbart’s expertise also includes advising his clients on trusts and estates issues related to matrimonial law, including tax issues incident to divorce. He also represents clients in the preparation and negotiation of prenuptial, postnuptial, and cohabitation agreements. In addition to his practice, Mr. Weissbart serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, where he teaches Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates and International Estate Planning.

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Marilyn B. Chinitz
Partner
Blank Rome LLP

Ms. Chinitz is a formidable advocate for her clients, guiding them through some of the most challenging transitions in their lives. She concentrates her practice in matrimonial law, particularly high-net-worth divorce actions. Ms. Chinitz is a skillful negotiator whose numerous high-profile and celebrity cases have received national and international attention. She has more than 35 years of experience in every facet of family law.

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Description

Trusts present unique challenges when classifying and dividing marital assets in a divorce. Counsel must discover the existence of a spouse's interest, the type of interest, and the value of that interest in the trust.

Many trusts in question will have been created by a third party. But if a couple is getting divorced and has made a trust during the marriage, different issues and potential pitfalls should receive special attention.

Counsel must decide whether to join the trust or trustee as a party to the divorce proceeding. Counsel must also determine when to attack a trust, how to defend a trust, and what remedies are available. From the family law perspective, counsel must address and present critical evidentiary issues.

Listen as our panel of family law and estate law attorneys discusses drafting methods to mitigate attacks on trust assets, discovering the trust and classifying the beneficiary's interest in the trust as marital property, and reaching or protecting the beneficiary's assets. The panel will identify available remedies and outline crucial evidentiary issues.

Outline

  1. Types of trusts
  2. Drafting trusts to reduce attacks on trust assets
  3. Discovering trust assets
  4. Classifying the trust interest as marital property
  5. Ways to reach trust assets or protect the beneficiary's assets
  6. Joining the trust or trustee as a party
  7. Key evidentiary issues
  8. Remedies

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • What are best practices for drafting trusts to protect trust assets in the event of divorce?
  • If the parties transfer marital assets to the trust, do those assets lose their character as marital assets, and are they off-limits in divorce?
  • What can counsel do to discover a party's interest in a trust?
  • What are the methods available to reach a party's interest in the trust and to defend against an attempted attack on the trust?
  • What are the critical evidentiary issues in successfully attacking a trust or defending the trust from attack?