Why Ethical Mastery is Essential for Estate Planning Professionals: Don’t Miss This Critical Teleconference

Register now for the Estate Planning Ethics Teleconference in June!

Why Ethical Mastery is Essential for Estate Planning Professionals:
Don’t Miss This Critical Teleconference

The Cannon Estate Planning Teleconference is an opportunity for driven business professionals to keep up to date on the latest trends, developments and technologies that can impact their business and help them grow.

Alternatively - avoid upgrading your skills, and risk falling behind your team members and competitors.

You certainly don’t want this to happen.

I for one, try to attend as many conferences and explore as many educational opportunities as possible. What I would like you to keep in mind is that the ethics teleconference is particularly timely and helpful. Let me explain why:

As financial professionals, we often find ourselves advising clients on some of the most sensitive topics including asset protection planning. These are the strategies that are perfectly ethical if done right but may be quite risky for those who are unaware of the ethical boundaries. Isn’t it wise to take steps to avoid a proverbial landmine? Besides, we all need ethics hours for our continuing education credits.

So, what are the real-world ethical dilemmas confronting financial professionals?

Let’s take another quick look at asset protection planning. The biggest risk in this area is that there are laws and strict professional conduct rules designed to prevent potential fraud against known creditors. I would like to mention the “Statute of Elizabeth”, one of the earliest examples enacted in England, all the way back in the 1500s. In a nutshell, it prevents fraudulent conveyances, and the rules of professional conduct prohibit attorneys from assisting clients in actions they know to be fraudulent. Twenty-four states have enacted the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act, formerly known as the Uniform Fraudulent Conveyances Act, further reinforcing these principles. In my professional opinion, every financial advisor should understand and embrace these legal boundaries – especially when advising on asset protection strategies such as self-settled asset protection trusts.

Now let’s take a look at CHB Planning. The biggest issue I see here is that professionals need to be clear on who they are representing – the business or the client – and ensure all parties are on board with that. Any ambiguity or misunderstanding should be avoided.

Negotiating Settlement of Disputes – when we think about negotiations, we usually imagine TV shows, TV programs or situations where bluffing or posing are quite common, however, that’s what can get financial practitioners in trouble. They need to be fully aware of the rules pertaining to what is or is not admissible in settlement negotiations.

Conflicts arising from nonprofit board service: Directors serve as fiduciaries who have a duty of care and loyalty to the organization they work for. If a lawyer or financial professional represent the organization in some fashion, conflicts may inevitably arise. Therefore, directors should be well-equipped to use independent judgment in their decisions, and representing the organization may potentially interfere with their ability to remain neutral.

The most crucial takeaways attendees will gain at the ethical conference

The teleconference series are always instrumental in bringing attendees up to speed on the latest case law and ethics opinions. Not only does this help practitioners stay up-to-date on the latest trends, it also provides real world examples of the type of conflicts being discussed. Everyone can read the black letter law, but seeing it applied to real world scenarios is very helpful and facilitates learning.

The growing popularity of certain estate planning strategies, such as asset protection trusts and using LLCs to provide a liability shield, mean that practitioners should be aware of all the ethical pitfalls involved. Only then can they effectively advise clients while keeping both the clients and themselves out of trouble.

By the way, there was a particularly interesting case out of the Southern District of Iowa back in 2021, Kruse v. Repp, 543 F.Supp.3d 654 (S.D. Iowa, June 15, 2021), in which a lawyer, a law firm and a bank were exposed to civil RICO and other liabilities for assisting a client in transferring assets into LLCs after a lawsuit had been filed stemming from a vehicle accident. Although the case ultimately settled and the issues were not fully litigated, the court denied summary judgment on the defendants’ argument that their conduct was proper.

Register now for the Estate Planning Ethics Teleconference – your clients, your reputation, and your professional future depend on it. Secure your spot today and gain the knowledge you need to navigate complex ethical dilemmas with confidence.