Trusts and Divorce: Discovering Hidden Trusts, Reaching Trust Assets, Protecting Beneficiary's Interest
Recording of a 90-minute CLE video webinar with Q&A
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.
Outline
- Types of trusts
- Drafting trusts to reduce attacks on trust assets
- Discovering trust assets
- Classifying the trust interest as marital property
- Ways to reach trust assets or protect the beneficiary's assets
- Joining the trust or trustee as a party
- Key evidentiary issues
- 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?
Faculty
K. Eli Akhavan
Partner
Steptoe & Johnson
Mr. Akhavan focuses his practice on tax and estate planning for high-net-worth US and non-US clients. He advises... | Read More
Mr. Akhavan focuses his practice on tax and estate planning for high-net-worth US and non-US clients. He advises domestic and international individuals and families with respect to tax and estate planning for their US assets and beneficiaries. Mr. Akhavan also advises cross-border clients on all aspects of international estate matters, including foreign trusts, pre-immigration and expatriation planning, and on planning for the purchase of US residential and investment real property. He has considerable knowledge of the reporting requirements applicable with respect to foreign financial accounts and assets and with respect to FATCA and its global equivalent, the Common Reporting Standards (CRS). Mr. Akhavan's practice includes advising clients on the formation of private trust companies for purposes of wealth management and privacy.
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Andrea T. Dunbar
Partner
Burns Levinson
Ms. Dunbar is an attorney in the firm's Private Client group and a member of the Divorce & Family Law,... | Read More
Ms. Dunbar is an attorney in the firm's Private Client group and a member of the Divorce & Family Law, Fiduciary Litigation and Trusts & Estates practices. She concentrates her practice on all aspects of probate and family court litigation in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. This includes divorce, paternity, child custody, alimony, modification matters, will contests, representation of trustees, executors and beneficiaries, guardianships and conservatorships.
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