STEP USA Branch reports - March 2010
New York
The STEP New York Branch is off to a strong start in the new
year. At our January meeting Robert Hall of VIE Raymond Britt,
a Virginia attorney, spoke on 'International Wealth and Estate
Planning Solutions for the US Taxpayer Living Overseas (with a
focus on life insurance).' This meeting was followed in February
when Mark Ivener of Ivener & Fullmer in Los Angeles spoke on
'Three Important Immigration Issues Affecting Trust & Estate
Attorneys.' We are looking forward to the Sixth Annual
International Institute, which will be held at on 18-19
March in New York City. This annual event, co-sponsored
by The New York State Bar Association and STEP New York will be
chaired by Warren Whitaker, Chairman of STEP USA. This is
a two day Institute, where trust and estate professionals
gather to hear leaders in their field exchange ideas and discuss
developments regarding cross-border planning with a US component.
Register for the programme
here.
Upcoming meetings include: 22 April - 'Appointment and
Retirement of Trustees of Cayman Island Trusts and the Accompanying
Questions of Indemnifications and Releases,' Justin
Appleyard of Maples & Calder; 11 May - A joint
topic: 'International Asset Protection Planning Update,' and
'Anit-Money Laundering Practices: What Every
Professional Must Know,' Duncan Osborne of Osborne Helman
Knebel & Deleery and Gideon Rothschild of Moses and Singer. 23
June - 'Pre-Immigration Planning to the US,' Bob Dumont of Deloitte
and Warren Whitaker of Day Pitney.
We welcome guests and visitors from other branches, and hope to
see many of you at our meetings this year!
MidAtlantic
The Mid-Atlantic Branch of STEP covers the area including:
Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, Baltimore, Maryland and
Washington, D.C. We meet regularly to discuss subjects of interest
to members of the group. We rotate the venue for our meetings, and,
in order to enable all of our members to participate, we hold most
meetings by video conference so that members can go to offices in
convenient locations throughout the geographic area covered by the
branch. We had an outstanding meeting in December in Wilmington,
Delaware, where the focus of the discussion was on Delaware Trusts
and the use of Delaware in international planning. The meeting was
sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada and was followed by a
reception. At our most recent meeting earlier this month Kevin
Johnson and Nick Shore of Frank Hirth spoke on Inbound and Outbound
Tax Planning for Individuals from a US (Federal and State) and UK
Perspective. The speakers were in Philadelphia and we broadcast to
Wilmington and Washington. We have had good attendance at all of
our meetings and STEP membership in the Mid-Atlantic Branch
continues to grow. We welcome the participation of new members
throughout the region, and, if anyone knows any interested
practitioners in the Mid-Atlantic region, please let us know.
Miami
STEP Miami has continued to be active, focusing
on both timely and informative presentations, while
maintaining its involvement in the STEP Caribbean Conference.
On 12 June 2009 Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management held a
presentation entitled: 'Emerging Planning Trends', providing a
practical and in depth analysis of recent trends affecting trusts
and trust administration.
On 23 September 2009 Michael Pfeifer (Caplin and Drysdale,
Chartered) spoke on the 'Latest International Tax Developments -
News from Washington DC', looking into his own crystal ball as to
the changes expected under the Obama administration.
In November 2009 the tax team from Baker & McKenzie LLP's
Miami office discussed the then recently proposed 'Foreign Tax
Account Compliance Act of 2009' or FATCA(T) for short!
Last month David Pratt (immediate past chair of the Tax Section
of the Florida Bar) spoke on the 'Temporary Repeal of the Estate
Tax and Limitations on Valuation Discounts.'
The Branch is pleased to report that we are seeing a growing
number of new members. Our board has also grown with the inclusion
of two new members, David Boekhorst and Juan Manuel Gonzalez, who
are providing new and fresh ideas to our team.
Presentations have been scheduled for later this month and the
branch is also working on its first STEP Miami conference, to be
held later this year.
Finally the STEP Caribbean conference will take place this May.
Joseph Kellogg has done an excellent job representing the branch on
the conference steering committee.
Chicago
STEP Chicago has experienced steady growth in membership and
meeting attendance. Since our last branch report last
October, we celebrated the holidays with a festive cocktail
reception on December 1st, which was graciously
sponsored by Stout Risius Ross. Prior to the reception,
Robert Hall, of Vie International Financial Services in London,
presented on international planning issues, with a focus on
insurance solutions.
STEP Chicago then rang in the new decade with
a meeting on 7 January 2010. We were honored to have the
dynamic duo of Shân Warnock-Smith QC, of 5 Stone Buildings,
Lincoln’s Inn, and Andrew De La Rosa, of Ten Old Square, both in
London, present on ‘International Trust and Succession Litigation:
Recent Developments Roundup,’ which was met with rave reviews. On 2
March, Andrew J. Colclough, of Butterfield Bank (Bahamas) Limited,
in Nassau, Bahamas, provided us with interesting and thoughtful
insights on ‘Offshore Private Trust Companies.’ We would like to
thank all of our speakers for travelling so far to visit us!
Our next meeting will be sponsored by Jeffrey
A. Zaluda and his law firm, Horwood, Marcus & Berk Chtd. in
late May/early June. We thank Mr. Zaluda and his law firm for their
generosity. More details regarding the meeting will be posted
shortly.
We awelcome our newest Chicago branch members
and invite any interested practitioners in the Midwest Region to
participate in our upcoming branch events. If you have any
questions regarding the Chicago branch, please contact Benetta P.
Jenson at [email protected].
Los
Angeles
With membership now in excess of 70
individuals and growing, the Los Angeles Branch of STEP continues
to provide quality programmes for the Southern California trust and
estates community.
Save the date!
The 3rd Annual STEP Pacific Rim Conference will be
held on 6 - 7 May 2010 at the Hotel Casa del Mar, Santa Monica,
California and will focus on planning for United States citizens,
United States resident individuals with assets located abroad, the
development of structures for individuals to hold personal
residences abroad, investment in United States real estate by
foreign persons, international enforcement initiatives and planning
for multinational families and their businesses. For further
details please contact Roxann M. Mehle at [email protected].
On Tuesday 23 February 2010 we continued our
annual Festival of Forms Series with a lunch meeting hosted by
Bryan Cave LLP. The distinguished panel of experts conducted a
'Dancing with the Forms' review of International Tax and Financial
Reporting Forms. The presenters included a mix of attorneys and
accountants: Bill Norman, Ord & Norman; Paul Sczudlo, Law
Offices of Paul A. Sczudlo; Polina Chapiro, Green Hasson Janks LLP
and Maria Otero, Moss Adams, LLP. This lunch programme was one
of our more successful and well attended programmes, yet with 60
attendees, including 10 attending via video conference from San
Diego (thanks to the efforts of Michelle Graham of the San Diego
office of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP).
On Thursday 25 March 2010 Bryan Cave LLP
hosted a presentation and working lunch: 'Excerpts from the
Professional Diary of a Peripatetic Estate Planner.' Guest speakers
included Cindy Brittain and Silvia On, attorneys with Withers Hong
Kong, whose discussion involved a case study focusing on the
cultural and technical issues that arise in planning for the cross
border Asian - California family, with children in Hong Kong and
California.
Look for announcements of our upcoming
programmes and other STEP LA events on the STEP website. We
appreciate the ongoing contributions of our executive committee
members and we also thank the Hottinger Group for their
continued financial support. STEP Los Angeles is committed to
continue the quality of programs and membership growth for the
upcoming year.
Seattle
The STEP Seattle members wish to
express their condolences to the family of Irene Lo, who passed
away in late 2009. Irene served as the treasurer of our branch
and was instrumental in its formation. Irene will be sorely
missed by her many friends in the international estate
planning community, in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, Asia and
beyond. Irene's life is memorialised by her family
at http://www.mem.com/
With the support of STEP
USA, the STEP Seattle Branch continues to grow and is adding
new members at a steady pace. A full schedule of presentations
is planned for 2010, except for a one month summer holiday
break. Presenters, local and foreign, will address
international estate planning issues ranging from country-specific
topics on: Germany, Italy, Japan, China and Canada, to
technical topics such as the interplay of trust rules with the CFC
and PFIC regimes. There will be one or more joint meetings
with the STEP Vancouver Branch, possibly coinciding with the IBA
Annual Conference in Vancouver this October. STEP Seattle
members also are participating in panels at the STEP Pacific
Rim Conference this May. If anyone is travelling in the
Pacific Northwest, please contact a STEP Seattle Branch officer so
some local hospitality can be extended.