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  • InsideTrack
  • July 02, 2014

    Death, Taxes … and Eckhardt’s. The Essence of Estate Planning.

    State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE has just released the revised 2014 edition of Eckhardt’s Workbook for Wisconsin Estate Planners, available now both in print and online.

    July 2, 2014 – For more than 40 years Wisconsin lawyers have turned to Eckhardt’s Workbook for Wisconsin Estate Planners for indispensable guidance in the demanding realm of estate planning. This 2014 edition is especially timely because it includes extensive discussion of the new Wisconsin Trust Code, which took effect on July 1, 2014, and will significantly change the testamentary landscape. Also new this year is a new section addressing digital assets. Tax rates, legal authority, and sample language have, of course, been updated.

    Eckhardt’s is a one-stop reference book, with a practical how-to approach and numerous checklists, examples, tables, charts, and diagrams that simplify and integrate the topical discussions. Annotated sample forms demonstrate how those general principles work in real practice. Attorneys will find quick and clear answers to questions about drafting wills with or without trust provisions, nonprobate transfers, estate and inheritance taxes, revocable trusts, gifts, marital property agreements, buy-sell agreements for closely held businesses, living wills, and powers of attorney. The book also includes considerations to be addressed when advising same-sex couples regarding estate planning, including tax implications, and a section discussing who may enter a marital property agreement. Other sections deal with Wisconsin’s adoption of a power of attorney delegating parental power, WisPACT trusts, and the conflict between will and nonprobate transfers. There is also a new author-drafted form providing for tag-along and drag-along rights for majority and minority owners.

    The book includes a CD with the complete set of forms and letters from the book. The forms are also available online through Books UnBound.

    Eckhardt’s Workbook for Wisconsin Estate Planners represents the efforts of 19 attorney-experts: Susan L. Collins, Mark H.T. Fuhrman, Steven E. Grimm, Elizabeth A. Heiner, Carl Holborn, M. Rhett Holland, Bradley J. Kalscheur, John A. Kussmaul, Judith G. McMullen, Daniel G. Mohan, Randy S. Nelson, J. Lewis Perlson, Carl J. Rasmussen, Linda Roberson, Wendy S. Rusch, Holly Slota, Dean T. Stange, Sheila Boothby Stevens, Peter J. Walsh, and David Weller.

    Eckhardt’s is available in print, or online via PINNACLE’s subscription-based online library, Books UnBound®. The print book costs $249 for members, and $309 for nonmembers (plus tax and shipping). Subscribers to the State Bar’s automatic supplementation service will receive future updates at a 10 percent discount off the regular update price. Annual subscriptions to Books UnBound start at $149 per title and $769 for the full library (single-user prices; call for firm pricing). To order Eckhardt’s Workbook for Wisconsin Estate Planners, or for more information, contact the State Bar at (800) 728-7788 or (608) 257-3838.


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