Assembling Your Team Members and Knowing When to Use Them

AuthorMargaret A. Munro, Kathryn A. Murphy
ProfessionHas more than 30 years' experience in trusts, estates, family tax, and small businesses/Attorney with more than 20 years' experience administering estates and trusts and preparing estate and gift tax returns
Pages57-72
CHAPTER 4 Assembling Your Team Members and Knowing When to Use Them 57
Chapter4
Assembling Your Team
Members and Knowing
When to Use Them
The universe of trusts and estates is quite unlike any other and has its own
sets of rules and conventions that may seem completely foreign. In the
duciary (trust and estate) cosmos, accounting rules are dierent, and so
are many of the tax laws.
Navigating these new waters by yourself isn’t impossible, but it’s also not uncom-
mon to want expert advice and assistance along the way. In this chapter, we tell
you about dierent types of advisors you may want to consult, from attorneys and
accountants to investment advisors, appraisers, and other assorted professionals.
Finding What You Need to Go It Alone
We both know lots of people who have successfully maneuvered their way through
the world of estate or trust administration unassisted. Many of these were folks
whose professional lives touched on this area, so they had some idea of where to
IN THIS CHAPTER
»
Identifying what you can and can’t do
yourself
»
Locating an attorney
»
Assessing accountants
»
Finding other experts and assistants
»
Considering the facts about
malpractice
58 PART 1 Getting Started with Estate and Trust Administration
start and how to proceed. We also know plenty others whom we met midway
through the administration process, after the executor, administrator, or trustee
nally threw up his hands in defeat.
You can nd a middle ground. Administering a trust or estate without professional
help is entirely possible, but you shouldn’t assume that you’ll be able to do it
without doing some homework. The fact that you’re reading this book is a great
starting point, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t point you to some other resources
as well, such as:
»
IRS Publication 559, Survivors, Executors, and Administrators: Although
reading this publication may not be your idea of a good time, it’s a key
resource and highlights important issues you need to be aware of. It gives
youtax advice for the decedent’s (deceased person’s) nal Form 1040, the
estate’s (or trust’s) Form 1041, and the estate’s Form 706 (see Chapters16
and17). It also gives general administration advice, comprehensive income
tax return examples, and a valuable checklist of forms and due dates.
»
Instructions for tax forms: We’d love to say that we never read the tax form
instructions, but we’d be lying. They seem dense and intimidating, especially if
you’re not sure where to look. Fortunately, most give instructions line by line,
and very often terms and concepts are introduced either at the beginning of
the instructions or at the start of a particular chapter within the instructions.
If you’re afraid of losing the information after you’ve located it, make a photo-
copy of the appropriate page, highlight the pertinent text, and keep it together
with your copy of the return and any supporting documents.
»
Your local probate court (or its equivalent in your state): In addition to
being the best place to locate all the probate forms you need, most courts
also have pamphlets available that explain the probate process in your locale.
Making friends with clerks or assistant registrars at the probate court never
hurts. Many of them have been there longer than the furniture, and what they
don’t know about probate probably isn’t worth knowing.
»
Your state department of taxation or revenue: Every state has specic
requirements for trusts and estates, and many have publications available to
help guide you through the process. In addition, if you have questions, call the
state tax department and ask to be transferred to the duciary (or trust and
estate) section. Every state tax department has at least one person in that
area. Make sure that you get her contact info and keep it handy. If you run
into trouble down the road, having a person who is familiar with your
situation is invaluable.
We don’t suggest that you ever phone the IRS for duciary tax advice. The IRS
doesn’t focus its training on duciary tax, and its telephone support is spotty, at
best. What’s worse, you don’t know whether the person on the other end of the
phone actually knows what she is talking about. If you can’t nd the answer

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