A, B, C’s of Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts

The reflex to push assets into an irrevocable trust to beat the estate-tax sunset no longer holds — Congress made the roughly $15 million exemption permanent for 2026, and the revocable-versus-irrevocable decision now turns on Medicaid eligibility, basis step-up, and asset protection rather than a closing window. As clients age into the five-year lookback and long-term care costs climb, Medicaid asset protection planning has only intensified, even while the estate-tax rationale that drove SLATs and aggressive gifting recedes. Attorneys still working from sunset-era templates risk recommending irrevocable structures that surrender step-up and flexibility for a tax benefit most clients no longer need. This program compares the two structures across flexibility, tax treatment, and asset protection, weighs joint revocable trusts against his-and-hers arrangements, drafts Medicaid asset protection trusts, SLATs, ILITs, and special needs trusts, and works through EIN requirements, the four phases of administration, and the drafting that defeats contests and shields fiduciaries. Attendees leave able to match structure to client and draft administration-ready irrevocable trusts that hold up.

What Will You Learn

Attorneys will learn the structures and considerations of revocable versus irrevocable trusts, common types of irrevocable trusts, drafting tips, and trust administration fundamentals.

What Will You Gain

Attorneys will gain practical knowledge on avoiding trust contests, protecting fiduciary clients, identifying ideal candidates, and navigating the four key phases of trust administration.

Key topics to be discussed:

• Flexibility factors
  Examine how flexibility differs between revocable and irrevocable trusts across varying client life circumstances.
• Asset protection
  Understand asset protection considerations when advising clients on revocable versus irrevocable trust structures.
• Joint structures
  Review joint revocable trusts compared against his and hers trust arrangements for couples.
• Ideal candidates
  Identify which clients are best suited as ideal candidates for a revocable trust.
• EIN requirements
  Address separate Employer Identification Number needs that arise during irrevocable trust administration.
• Trust contests
  Learn strategies for avoiding trust contests and drafting documents that protect fiduciary clients.

This course is co-sponsored with myLawCLE.

Date / Time: June 30, 2026

• 2:00 pm – 4:10 pm Eastern
• 1:00 pm – 3:10 pm Central
• 12:00 pm – 2:10 pm Mountain
• 11:00 am – 1:10 pm Pacific

Closed-captioning available