BarbriSFCourseDetails
  • videocam Live Online with Live Q&A
  • calendar_month November 18, 2025 @ 1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
  • signal_cellular_alt Intermediate
  • card_travel Estate Planning
  • schedule 90 minutes

Structuring Trust-to-Trust Transfers to Address Deficiencies in Existing Irrevocable Trusts

Avoiding Transfer Tax Consequences, Navigating Fiduciary Issues and Notification Requirements

$297.00

This course is $0 with these passes:

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Description

Estate planning attorneys and advisers frequently are confronted with existing irrevocable trusts whose provisions no longer meet the client's needs. Whether through change in family/beneficiary situations, changes in asset composition, defects in the original trust document, or different tax strategy requirements, planners must be able to modify these stale irrevocable trusts to ensure clients have a tax-efficient means of transferring assets to designated beneficiaries.

A critical tool for estate planning counsel is structuring trust-to-trust transfers to address deficiencies in these trusts. Estate planners can structure new or existing irrevocable trusts to serve as recipients of assets from these existing stale trusts, making sure the terms of the new trust meet the updated needs of their clients.

These trust-to-trust transactions are not without tax and fiduciary risks, so estate planners must be fully aware of potential transfer tax consequences, fiduciary impacts upon trustees, and various state law provisions that may complicate the transfers. Structuring the recipient trust to avoid these negative consequences is critical to achieving a tax-efficient asset result.

Listen as our experienced panel provides a practical guide to structuring trust-to-trust transfers as a means of fixing stale irrevocable trusts.

Presented By

Vincent Aiello
Of Counsel
Spencer Fane LLP

Mr. Aiello helps business owners solve legal problems to secure revenue flow and reduce business risks. As a lawyer and business owner he has firsthand experience handling complex commercial litigation and transactional matters for his clients. Mr. Aiello's client base spans a broad spectrum of businesses including household-name consumer brands, banks, construction companies and family ventures. As legal counsel he advises personal family foundations on managing and protecting their wealth. While each of Mr. Aiello's clients may take on a unique shape or size, they all face complex legal and business challenges, which is precisely where he has focused his commercial legal practice.

Serena O'Neil
Partner
Spencer Fane LLP

Ms. O’Neil works with high-net worth individuals and business owners to craft estate plans that meet their goals of business succession planning, tax planning, and charitable giving. As part of her complex estate planning practice, she drafts many different types of revocable and irrevocable trusts for clients. These trusts include asset protection trusts, grantor and non-grantor spousal limited access trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, self-settled trusts, children’s trusts, annual exclusion gifting trusts, incomplete gift non-grantor trusts, single asset revocable trusts, charitable trusts, supplemental needs trusts, retirement trusts, real estate investment trusts, farm trusts, and cabin trusts. Additionally, Ms. O'Neil works with clients to establish the traditional “core” estate planning documents that every plan needs – wills, financial power of attorneys, health care directives, and as needed, revocable trusts. Her approach with every estate plan is to identify cost-effective options to transfer assets at death outside of court proceedings, especially given that a methodical approach now can save her clients and their families thousands of dollars by avoiding probate later.

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


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Tuesday, November 18, 2025

  • schedule

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

I. What makes a trust "stale"

II. Fiduciary concerns and risks

III. Transfer tax consequences and how to avoid them

IV. Planning and methods to deplete the stale/existing trust

The panel will discuss these and other important issues:

  • How to identify trust provisions that need repair or refreshing
  • State law provisions that hinder or facilitate the structuring of trust-to-trust transfers to remedy defects in existing trusts
  • Potential transfer tax consequences of structuring trust-to-trust transfer vehicles and how to avoid those consequences
  • Potential fiduciary concerns in trust-to-trust transfer transactions