JASON E. HAVENS' FAVORITE 50 LREP SITES
Welcome to my Favorite Fifty LREP Sites page (
12/7/2002). This page represents my favorite sites from all
categories (in no particular order, except generally as they
appear in the categories and in reverse order because more
favorites are contained in the latter categories). Within LREP, a favorite is
denoted by a "money" icon because some of these sites will
hopefully make researchers more efficient, saving money for
professionals and clients:
(with a link attached to each such icon that will lead users
back to this page if selected or "clicked".
Again, please
realize that categorizing links is inherently difficult for
any organized site. Accordingly, users should utilize the
LREP map tool and remember to broaden their searches if a
relevant site is not found where they assumed it would be
categorized.
VI. EP PRACTICE TOOLS
(1)
Seminars & Resources - Bourland, Wall & Wenzel (Fort
Worth, TX) (superb presentations in Adobe Acrobat and
Microsoft PowerPoint format, depending on seminar; excellent
presentations on charitable planning, business succession
planning, family limited partnerships, grantor trusts, and
more, e.g., "Charitable
Tax Planning Techniques in Business Succession Plans"
(10/11/2001), "Creating
Private Foundations" (11/1/2001), and "Charitable
Tax Planning Techniques in Business Succession and Wealth
Migration Plans" (1/17/2002)) (3/21/2004)
(2) lexisONE™
(purchased PalmLaw.com) (includes very helpful
LexisNexis Research for Small Firms) (
6/15/2002)
(3)
Legal
Technology Institute - University of Florida College of
Law (also superb, but on a more general basis; particularly
helpful in selecting law office or "computerized case"
management programs)
(10/12/2003)
(4)
Home Page
- Brentmark® Software (very good site: detailed estate
planning information; excellent software including Estate
Planning QuickView and Estate Planning Tools)
(5)
The
Refurb Depot
(my favorite place to purchase factory-refurbished products on the Internet,
although
Dell
and
SonySytle (PDAs) have their own outlet portals)
(4/18/2004)
(6)
DirectDeals (my favorite place to purchase software,
with particularly good deals on Microsoft® applications)
(5/2/2004)
(7)
Personal Representative's Handbook ("pamphlet ... to
acquaint persons ... to serve as personal representatives of
a decedent's estate ... in Florida"; created by Probate
Division of 17th Judicial District of Florida)
 (1/23/2005)V. EP LITERATURE
(8)
Estate Planning & Tax Law Journals - RIA (very helpful,
free feature articles) (
6/15/2002)
(9)
Trusts & Estates Magazine
- Primedia (very helpful, free feature articles under "Table
of Contents"; on-line historical access to last
10 years of articles as of 1/2004 (see
ABA-PTL Heckerling Institute 2004 report #15) (7/4/2001)
( 1/17/2004)
(10)
Florida Bar Journal (search feature provides access to
superb archived articles on estate planning (104 documents as of link
addition date), homestead (48 documents as of link addition
date), and more relevant topics)
(2/7/2003)
(11)
Journal of Financial Planning - Financial Planning
Association (official publication) (freely-searchable
archives back to fall 1979 issue with full-text articles) (3/21/2004)
(12)
ABA-PTL List Serve Archives - ABA Real Property, Probate
& Trust Section or
ABA-PTL List Serve Archives - L-Soft International (both
archive portals, in case a server is down) (superb, free
list serve on estate planning and other tax topics, with
free searchable archives; used by many top tax and estate
planning practitioners)
(13)
Publications Archive - Hale & Dorr (Boston) (Trusts &
Estates and Taxation Bulletins; users may find most relevant
articles by searching keywords such as "estates" or "trusts"
in the Archive) (
6/21/2001)
(14)
Trusts and Estates Law Group - Warner, Norcross & Judd
(Grand Rapids, MI) (excellent site: "Legal Developments,"
"Estate Planning Techniques," "Newsletters/Articles,"
"Related Online Links," and other features)
(15)
Estate Planning Answers - ABA RPPT Law Section (superb
explanations on estate planning generally, tools and
techniques in estate planning, the probate process,
guidelines for individual executors and trustees, and the
lawyer's role in the process)
(6/15/2002)
(16) Numerous Articles - FindLaw > Practice Areas > Probate,
Trusts & Estates >
Wills, Trusts, and Estate Planning (11/10/2001) (
10/9/2004)
(17)
Estate Planning Page - Robert Clofine (York, PA) (great
site: comprehensive listing of estate planning articles)
(18) Jay S.
Goldenberg (Chicago) (articles on everything from basic
estate planning to "defective" grantor trusts and taxation
of trusts and estates)
(19)
Advanced Strategies to Save Federal Estate Tax (under
"Keys to Wealth") – National Network of Estate Planning
Attorneys (articles by subject: FLPs, split-dollar
insurance, "Generation Skipping and Dynasty Trusts," GRATs,
ILITs, "Private Annuities," QPRTs, and more)
(20) Oshins &
Associates (Las Vegas, NV) (an advanced techniques page,
good links, and excellent articles including "Sale to a
Defective Trust: A Life Insurance Technique," "Defective
Trusts Offer Planning Opportunities," and "Sales to Grantor
Trusts: Exponential Leverage Using Multiple Installment
Sales" (all published in major estate planning
publications))
(21)
Taxation and Employee Benefits Publications - McGuire,
Woods et al. (Richmond, VA) (many helpful articles including
"Ten Estate Planning Techniques to Consider," "An
Introduction to Estate Planning," "Estate Freeze Techniques
and Freeze Related Issues," "Installment Sales to Grantor
Trusts," "Adequate Disclosure of Gifts, Checklists for
Returns and Appraisals," "Charitable Giving Alternatives,"
and the "Charitable Giving and Tax-Exempt Organizations
Handbook")
(22)
Articles by Gideon Rothschild - Moses & Singer (New
York) (excellent "Trusts and Estates and Wealth
Preservation" articles, including "Self-Settled Spendthrift
Trusts," "Creditor Protection for Life Insurance and
Annuities," and "Protecting Retirement Plans")
(23)
Articles - Nelson & Levine (Miami) (excellent articles
on Florida homestead, asset protection, family limited
partnerships, planning for lottery winnings, and more) (3/21/2004)
IV. SPECIFIC EP TOPICS
(24)
Tax Professional's Corner
- IRS (very helpful) ( 12/6/2002)
(25)
Valuation of Business Property Virtual Committee - ABA
RPPT Section Group on Business Planning (John DeBruyn,
Committee Chair; "Recent Developments," "Selected Web
Resources," and more)
(26)
"Estate Tax Calculator" under "Estate Planning Action
Center" - Fidelity® (free advanced interactive calculator
with separate inputs for joint and spousal assets,
liabilities, charitable deductions, and also strategy pages
on various estate planning techniques) (
6/22/2001)
(27)
AFRs -
Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro (San Francisco) (very good tax
and estate
planning site; see listing under IV. SPECIFIC EP TOPICS,
E. Basic and Advanced Estate Planning)
(28)
Financial Planning Toolkit™ - Commerce Clearing House (CCH)
(fantastic resource covering "Investing," "Insurance and
Risk Management," "Retirement Planning," "Estate Planning,"
and "Tax Planning"; includes literally thousands of pages on
financial planning issues, including page on
"Wills
of Famous People," with an expandable/collapsable
table of contents)
(5/8/2004)
(29) Layne
Rushforth's Estate Planning Pages - Layne T. Rushforth
(Las Vegas, NV) (advanced topics include estate reduction,
irrevocable trusts, charitable trusts, business entities,
estate "freezing," and asset protection; also includes forms
and memoranda) (
6/16/2002)
(30)
Frequently Asked Questions - Stephan Leimberg (excellent
comprehensive FAQs including valuation, deferred
compensation, GRATs and GRUTs, installment sales, SCINs,
private annuities, GST facts, and other topics) (8/26/2000)
(31)
CCH
Business Owner's Toolkit™ - Commerce Clearing House (CCH)
(fantastic resource covering business entity formation, tax
issues of business entities, "Protecting Your Business"
(discussing FLPs and family limited liability companies),
exit strategies, and much more; includes literally thousands
of pages on business entity issues, with an expandable/collapsable
table of contents) (3/9/2003) (
5/8/2004)
(32) Planned
Giving Design Center (superb: the best charitable
planning site that I have seen and free to professionals who
register; has free charitable trust forms for registered
users, digest articles, and also helpful news updates about
once per week; major website update implemented as of April
2004) ( 4/18/2004)
(33)
Charitable Trust Planning - Vaughn Henry & Associates
(Springfield, IL) (very good charitable planning site)
(34)
A Road Map to Charitable Giving - TIAA/CREF On-line
Publications (excellent discussion of charitable giving
techniques including discussion of income, gift, and estate
tax consequences of charitable giving as well as charitable
trusts and other "Giving Arrangements" such as private
foundations, supporting organizations, and donor-advised
funds; easy to navigate using arrows at bottom of pages)
(5/8/2004)
(35)
Planned Giving Answers Online - Michigan State
University (another excellent and much more comprehensive
discussion of charitable planning in "e-book" format with
expandable/collapsable table of contents; extensive coverage
of "Charitable Bequests," "Charitable Gift Annuities,"
"Charitable Remainder Trusts," "Retirement Plan Assets,"
"Appreciated Securities," "Other Gifts," "Gift & Estate
Planning Concepts," "Charitable Tax Rules," and more, with
"Graphics" chapter that provides illustrations similar to
those available on The Capital Trust Company of Delaware
website (below under "7. Technology for Charitable
Planning"))
(5/8/2004)
(36)
GuideStar - The National Database of Nonprofit
Organizations (a searchable database of "more than 700,000
U.S. nonprofit organizations" and arguably the most
user-friendly) (8/26/2000)
(37) The
Capital Trust Company of Delaware (free news articles,
case and ruling updates, and, available freely to
professionals who register, sample trust language under
"Trust Language" and also slide-show presentations on the
following categories under "Trusts": "Philanthropic Estate
Planning" (with Adobe Acrobat overviews on charitable trusts
and Microsoft Power Point presentations on charitable trusts
and "Advantages of a NIMCRUT using a Common Trust Fund as
the Investment Vehicle"; "Special Needs Trusts" (with
Microsoft Word summaries and Microsoft Power Point
presentations); "Asset Protection" (with an Adobe Acrobat
summary and a Microsoft Power Point presentation); "Advanced
Strategies" (including presentations and explanations on
sales to defective trusts, discounting with FLPs, GRATs, and
more); and "Trust Transfers" (with a Microsoft Power Point
presentation) (1/28/2001) (main listing under IV. SPECIFIC
TOPICS > G. Charitable Planning and secondary listing under
VI. EP PRACTICE TOOLS) (
9/8/2002)
(38)
Estate and Retirement Planning - Noel C. Ice (Fort
Worth, TX) (excellent site: estate planning forms under
"Forms," letters, memoranda, and articles) (11/5/2000)
(39)
Employee Benefits Web Site - BenefitsLink®
(40)
Lex Mundi Publications (incredibly useful
"Guides to Doing Business," which evidently replaced the "International
Tax Deskbook," with separate chapters on numerous countries)
(9/10/2000) ( 4/18/2004)
III. STATE-SPECIFIC & LOCAL EP SITES
(41)
Planning Guide for the Florida Snowbird - Alan R. Lipman
(New York and Florida) (excellent "Snowbird Seminar" for
professionals)
(42)
Recent Issues - Michigan Probate and Estate Planning
Journal (freely-accessible, excellent coverage, even for
practitioners in other jurisdictions; formerly a part of the
Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE)) (
4/18/2004)
(43)
Texas Probate Web Site - Barnes & Karisch (Austin, TX)
(superb, including forms)
(44)
Trusts & Estates Section - Boston Bar Association
(section information including "Meeting Materials" presented
at meetings under "Previous Events," such as drafting for
the new tax act by Virginia Coleman (Ropes & Gray)
(9/4/2001), "Current Developments in Estate Planning" by
Thomas Peckham and Harry Lee (Bingham, Dana) (6/21/2001),
and administering complex trusts by Richard Dinsmore
(Scudder Investments) (4/3/2001)) (
9/29/2001)
(45)
Articles on Estate Planning - Estate Planning Council of
Cleveland (great selection of free articles) (
6/21/2001)
II. NATIONAL EP SITES
(46)
American
Bar Association Real Property, Probate & Trusts Section
(ABA RPPT) (excellent, with EP publications and free list
serve (ABA-PTL) on estate planning (both under EP
LITERATURE), links, and more)
(47) American
College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC) (prestigious,
with a very good list of links)
(48)
Professor Gerry Beyer (St. Mary's U. Law) (see also IV.
SPECIFIC EP TOPICS (under E. Basic & Advanced EP) and V. EP
LITERATURE (under 3. Advanced Estate Planning Articles))
(49)
Contracting and Organizations Research Institute (CORI)
- U. of Missouri-Columbia ("an interdisciplinary research
institute dedicated to the study of the organization and
structure of economic enterprise and of the effects of
legal, political, social, and economic institutions on the
structure and performance of economic organizations"; one of
the most impressive resources on business and contract law
on the Internet; includes free registered access to more
than 15,000 documents in plain text (Courier) format --
primarily drawn from the Securities and Exchange
Commission's EDGAR database -- via database known as CORI
Knowledgebase (K-Base); CORI K-Base is searchable or can be
browsed by subject, such as "By-Laws, Incorporation, Rights
Agreements, Organizational Governance," "Employment
Agreements," "Financial Contracts," "Joint Ventures and
Alliances," "Leases and Licenses," and "Mergers and
Acquisitions"; one of
"ABA TECHSHOW®
60 Sites in 60 Minutes 2004," as was LREP) (5/8/2004) (duplicate listing
under VI. EP PRACTICE TOOLS > A. Forms > 2. Legal EP and Tax
Forms)
I. GENERAL EP RESEARCH
(50)
FindLaw® Wills, Trusts, Estate & Probate (a good
starting point on the Internet for legal research projects;
design similar to Yahoo)
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