EU Succession Regulation: Estate Planning Risks and Opportunities for U.S. Taxpayers Owning EU-Sitused Assets

The recent EU Succession Regulation, also known as Brussels IV, creates significant opportunities, as well as risk and confusion, for estate planners and advisers serving U.S. taxpayers owning assets located in EU countries. The impact of the Regulation continues to present serious challenges even to seasoned estate planning professionals.

The principal feature of the Regulation is to eliminate multiple nations’ succession rules by providing a framework for the application of a single uniform law governing estate succession for EU member nations. Brussels IV provides that for decedents owning property in multiple jurisdictions, the governing law covering the succession of the decedent’s entire estate will be that of the nation which served as the decedent’s “habitual residence at the time of death.”

The most crucial element of the Regulation, however, is that it allows individuals to elect a different governing law than the one of the “last habitual residence” to govern the individual’s entire estate succession. So an American expatriate living in, for example, Germany at the time of death may elect in the estate documents to apply American law to the estate’s disposition. This choice of law option creates both risk and opportunities, and estate planners must have a thorough understanding of the Regulation’s terms and requirements for structuring estate plans to leverage potentially favorable or familiar treatment.

Listen as our experienced panel provides a timely and practical guide to the EU Succession Regulation and how to incorporate its provisions into an estate plan.

1. Prior framework
2. Terms of Brussels IV Succession Regulation
3. Factors determining “habitual residence at the time of death” for purposes of applying the Succession Rule
4. Choice of law election and determining when available and appropriate
5. Structuring estate documents to make an election under EU Succession Regulation

The panel will review these and other relevant topics:

• Where is the EU Succession Regulation in effect, and which EU countries have not signed on to the new structure?
• Factors determining what constitutes a decedent’s “last habitual residence at the time of death” for purposes of applying the default succession law
• How the choice of law provision operates under Brussels IV, and what factors must be present for an individual to elect to apply a different law than the “last habitual residence” jurisdiction
• Structuring considerations in estate plans for specifying the governing law under the choice of law provisions in Brussels IV

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Discern the difference between prior EU succession practices and the new provisions of the Brussels IV Succession Regulation
• Identify when a client may—and may not—use a choice of law election to choose a governing law other than that of the country of “last habitual residence”
• Recognize when exercising a choice of law election may not be in the client’s best interest
• Determine what provisions must be in estate documents to make a valid choice of law election

• Field of Study: Taxes
• Level of Knowledge: Intermediate
• Advance Preparation: None
• Teaching Method: Seminar/Lecture
• Delivery Method: Group-Internet (via computer)
• Attendance Monitoring Method: Attendance is monitored electronically via a participant's PIN and through a series of attendance verification prompts displayed throughout the program
• Prerequisite: Three years+ legal or public firm experience at midlevel within the organization, performing complex estate planning for high net worth individuals; supervisory authority over other professionals. Experience with estate planning for U.S. citizens with property and assets in the European Union and some familiarity with the EU Succession Regulation.

Strafford Publications, Inc. is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of Accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE Credits. Complaints regarding registered sponsons may be submitted to NASBA through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org.