The Charlotte Estate Planning Council's 2023 Annual Meeting was a success! This Annual Meeting boasted the first-ever CEPC Bus Tour, hosted by Charlotte Business Initiative (CBI), which toured around Charlotte and highlighted neighborhoods and their history. Members were granted access to the Harvey B. Gantt Center exhibits and were able to network out on the terrace before enjoying dinner together.

During dinner, incoming President Frank Robards welcomed everyone, and guests participated in the 2023 Annual Business Meeting where the 2023-2024 board members were voted in. Afterwards, we heard from Annetta Foard and Tom Hanchett whose presentation highlighted the policies and procedures established in Charlotte’s history that we are still seeing play out in the current day.

“Entrepreneurs & Entities: How to Make the Right Selection for the Right Reasons”

CEPC members recently met at the Canopy SouthPark to learn from Elizabeth Morgan, owner of Elizabeth Morgan & Associates, a boutique law firm based in Austin and focused on international tax, estate, business, and asset protection planning.

Elizabeth kicked off the presentation discussing the importance of entity selection and encouraged attendees to step back and think about what type of structure is needed, not only for today, but for the future as well. She discussed how flow through entities allow aggregation of income and expense on the business owner’s income tax return and how getting clients to understand the differences in these flow through options (general partnerships, limited partnerships, S-corporations, and limited liability companies that elect to be taxed as partnerships) is important.

Highlights from “Over-Rated? How Surging Interest Rates and Slow Growth May Radically Change Wealth Transfer Planning” 

CECP members met at the Charlotte Marriott City Center on November 15 to speak with Thomas J. Pauloski, JD, National Managing Director – Wealth Strategies, Bernstein, about interest rates and the effect on estate planning.

At the end of March, 50+ CECP members met in person at the Charlotte Marriott SouthPark for the first in person meeting since 2019! The March meeting was in fact a hybrid event and many members also joined virtually to hear Evergreen Legacy Planning LLP’s Matthew McClintock, JD, speak about crypto and estate planning. 

Matt kicked off the presentation with macro market trends, showing 3 year and 5 year scenarios, and spoke about paths to increase exposure including innumerable exchanges, NFT marketplaces, cash apps (like Venmo, PayPal), and chip manufacturers and companies (like Tesla, Square) with cryptoasset treasuries, that all lead to increased interest, adaption and direct token acquisition. 

Bessemer Trust’s Senior Fiduciary Counsel, Ron Aucutt, joined CEPC members on January 19^th to discuss his selections for the 2021 top ten estate planning and estate tax developments, and what to look for as we kick off the new year. Using specific cases, Mr. Aucutt discussed his list of top developments which include:

#10: Estate Tax Closing Letter for a Sixty-Seven Dollar User Fee (Reg. §300.13, CCA 202142010) – Mr. Aucutt noted the new regulation to restore the closing letter and impose a fee.