Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professors Edward Beckwith and Stafford Smiley

LL.M Course 825 (cross-listed) | 2 credit hours

This course supplements the two estate planning courses taught earlier in the fall semester, Income Taxation of Trusts, Estates, and Beneficiaries and Estate and Gift Tax. Like those courses, it is required for the Estate Planning Certificate and is a prerequisite for the Spring estate planning course, Advanced Private Wealth Transfer Seminar. This course addresses four areas of special concern in wealth planning: the distinction between common law and community property principles; valuation and business succession issues that arise in complex wealth planning; international aspects of wealth planning; and the generation skipping transfer tax or GST. Students will be evaluated primarily on the basis of a take-home final exam; class participation and assigned short written exercises will also be given weight in determining the final grade.

Prerequisites: Taxation I; Decedents’ Estates (or equivalent); Income Taxation of Trusts, Estates, and Beneficiaries; Estate and Gift Tax.

Students may not receive credit for both this course and Introduction to Private Wealth Planning: The Estate & Gift Tax.

JD students: This course requires Professor Permission to enroll. Please contact Ellis Duncan via email at ged5@law.georgetown.edu no later than Friday, June 7th for permission to take this class.