Business Planning Group

The following information is from the November 2005 issue of the ABA’s Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Bulletin:

The Business Planning Group covers choice of entity, estate planning, and estate administration for clients who own business entities or interests in farms or ranches. The entities may be active businesses or formed to hold investments. Entities include partnerships (general, limited, and/or limited liability), limited liability companies, and corporations (including those with an”S” election in place). Please visit its web page at http://www.abanet.org/rppt/cmtes/pt/c-group/home.html, which also takes you to its committees’ web pages that have additional information.

The Business Planning Group of committees has made comments on special rules that apply when family members own stock in an S corporation. These comments can be found at
http://www.abanet.org/rppt/cmtes/pt/c-group/ScorpsBAcommentsIRS.pdf and
http://www.abanet.org/rppt/cmtes/pt/c-group/ScorpsBAcommentsSenate.pdf.

The Group has telephone conferences the first Wednesday of every month starting at noon Central time and continuing for up to an hour. All are welcome to informally discuss (or just listen, if you prefer) current developments and committee projects and to “talk shop.” To receive notices of monthly meetings and information on selected current developments, please join at http://www.abanet.org/committee_join/ocj_join.cfm?comm=RP. Joining provides you with information and opportunities but does not obligate you to participate.

The next meeting, December 7, will focus on members’ recent experiences in audits of family limited partnerships. One member will share an information request letter(http://www.abanet.org/rppt/cmtes/pt/c-group/flp_tax_lett.pdf) that he received from the IRS. To join the call, dial 1-800-503-1676 (pass code is 520657 followed by the # key). For additional information, please contact the Group’s chair, Steve Gorin, at sgorin@thompsoncoburn.com.