Last week the United States Supreme Court issued the long awaited decision in the case of Clark v. Rameker. The decision resolved a conflict among the lower courts as to whether or not an inherited retirement account was exempt from creditor claims in Bankruptcy. Generally, your own retirement account (Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, 401K, 403B and the like) is exempt from the claims of creditors, meaning it cannot be seized by judgment creditors or lost in a bankruptcy. However, it has been unclear whether this same protection is available to retirement accounts you inherit from another.

This week’s post is a continuation of the discussion from last week of succession in family businesses, particularly farm family businesses. There are two areas of transition that need to be considered when planning for succession. Transition of leadership and transition of ownership. The two can and probably ought to be mutually exclusive. Transition of leadership can and often should take place prior to transition of ownership. The time to transition leadership to the child is not when the child is in his or her 60s or 70s and the parents are in their 80s or 90s. Rather, transition of leadership can and should take place much earlier when the child is in their prime years of vibrancy and innovation. Ownership on the other hand may transition later and may transition to more individuals.

I had the opportunity to participate in the planning of a conference that was held last week in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Farm Business and Estate Planning. It was a great event and I learned a lot from the various presenters. One of the presenters was my friend John Baker from Iowa State University. John is one of the editors of the book Keeping It In the Family: International Perspectives on Succession and Retirement on Family Farms. John has a special expertise in family business dynamics. One of the areas John discussed was what he referred to as conversation confusion. Our conversations about business succession can become confused by a variety of factors: timing, location, role, vocabulary or conflict. For example, timing, when do you hold your meeting as to discuss succession? Do you hold it over Thanksgiving because it is convenient to get all of the children there? If you do, you are operating in “family system” while attempting to discuss issues that are in the “business system.” People will have difficulty shifting gears and it will create confusion. Where are you holding the meeting? Is it around the family dinner table? Is everyone sitting in the same chairs they have sat in their entire life? Are people focused on the task at hand or are some fulfilling “family” roles, such as attending to food and drinks?

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and like many of you I celebrated with both my own Mother and my Wife. I took the opportunity to tell my children stories of their Mother, my Mother, and my Grandmothers. Telling these stories reinforced for me the power that exists when we share stories that convey our values.

"Obviously, the cost of drafting a will through the use of a pre-printed form is likely substantially lower than the cost of hiring a knowledgeable lawyer. However, as illustrated by this case, the ultimate cost of utilizing such a form to draft one’s will has the potential to far surpass the cost of hiring a lawyer at the outset."

So often in our estate planning the focus is on the material things: money, property, and business. But, when we leave this earth these things will not follow us.

I was struck this past Monday as I watched the championship game about the successful succession each of these schools seems to have when it comes to there basketball programs. Kentucky is a traditional powerhouse that has won championships under many coaches, Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith and John Calipari. Connecticut does not have near the history, but with this years win they now have four title teams under two coaches, Jim Calhoun and Kevin Ollie. The success of these two programs is in contrast with many coaching legends that have been followed closely by a successor who just couldn't measure up.

Like many of you I saw my NCAA Tournament brackets blown up by the upsets that inevitably come during the first weekend of the tourney each year. Duke loses to Mercer. Stanford shocks Kansas. Dayton moves to the Elite Eight. When considering passing along your business to the next generation you may feel like a "small school David" such as Mercer facing a "power conference Goliath" like Duke.

Today, March 21, 2014 is World Down Syndrome Day. I thought it would be a good day to revisit the subject of special needs planning. Often “special needs planning” devolves into "poverty planning” - how do we impoverish our son or daughter so they do not lose needed government assistance? Special needs planning can be so much more.

I just finished the new John Grisham book Sycamore Row. I am not normally a big fan of legal fiction because I spend so much of each day in legal reality; however, this story intrigued me because it involved a dispute over an estate. The story begins when a wealthy businessman, Seth Hubbard, who is dying from cancer, commits suicide. Quickly we learn that just days before his death he had revoked a will that had been carefully prepared to provide significant tax benefits and replaced it with what is known as a “holographic” will. A holographic will is a will that is in the handwriting of the person making the will (the Testator) and the will signed by the Testator generally without witnesses