Trusts and Estates
Ca. Trs. & Estates Quarterly VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2, 2025
Content
- Chairs of Section Subcommittees
- Editorial Board
- Inside This Issue
- Letter From the Chair
- Litigation Alert
- McLe Self-study Article Confusion In the Wording and Application of the Laws Governing the Entities and Individuals Conducting the Business of Acting As a Fiduciary Suggests a Need For Improvement
- McLe Self-study Article Some Additional Issues [and Solutions?] Relating To the California Income Taxation of Estates and Trusts
- McLe Self-study Article When, Why and How To Leave Retirement Accounts To Charity
- Tax Alert
- Letter From the Editor
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Written by Nicholas J. Van Brunt*
Hello, Readers of the Quarterly.
We are fortunate to practice in an area that is not going anywhere anytime soon. We advise and advocate for our clients at the intersection of two certainties: death and taxes. This issue provides both practical and theoretical considerations for how we might represent our clients in that space and how the laws should govern the professionals appointed in many cases to manage the hard-earned wealth of many of our clients.
For all but the wealthiest Americans, retirement benefits comprise a significant portion of their wealth. Yet when it comes to gifting these benefits to the beneficiaries of a client’s estate, significant tax consequences often abound. In When, Why, and How to Leave Retirement Amounts to Charity, Bryan Kirk sets forth tips for the estate planner whose clients have both charitable intent and a desire to leave some of their estate to family or other non-charities. For these clients, it will often make sense to leave traditional retirement accounts to charity and it may even make sense to leave a retirement account to a charitable remainder trust. The article addresses and provides potential solutions to the challenges that the estate planner may encounter in advising clients as to the disposition of retirement accounts to charity, particularly in a post-SECURE Act world.