Lifetime Business, Financial, Retirement, and Estate Planning -- Plus A Will -- All Five Benefit You and Your Loved Ones In The Year 2000 and Beyond

By:

Patrick J. Browne, Albert Mintz,
Omer F. Kuebel, Jr., Edmond C. Haasé, III, Stephen P. Schott, and J. Scott Loeb

Young or not so young, rich or not so rich, all adults who have loved ones or a home or savings or valuables should have coordinated wills and lifetime business, financial, retirement, and estate plans. Unfortunately, most of us do not have all five.

You do not have to be wealthy, married, or near death to do serious thinking about such plans and your will.

LIFETIME BUSINESS, FINANCIAL, RETIREMENT, AND ESTATE PLANNING

People who would never lack insurance to safeguard their loved ones and property frequently overlook making plans to protect these very same loved ones and property by neglecting to write and update wills or to create and update lifetime business, financial, retirement and estate plans with goals and strategies, free of tax traps and unintended consequences.

Estate planning (like financial and retirement planning) is not only for the very wealthy and should not evoke thoughts of mansions behind high fences.

An estate plan is simply a way to ensure that your money, property, and personal belongings will go to those you choose as economically and quickly as possible, deferring or minimizing as many taxes as possible and advisable.

BUSINESS PLANNING

An early step in business planning is determining the appropriate ownership of property and business interests. Property including real estate, vehicles, vessels, and leases may be owned by one or more individuals or by a legal entity such as a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or trust.

The selection of the form of appropriate ownership should be made only after taking into consideration a number of legal consequences and characteristics such as your personal liability, various tax consequences, and the applicability of federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), state securities, and " Blue Sky" laws.

The property which you own individually in your own name or with other individuals or legal entities is called in Louisiana ownership in indivision; ownership should always be covered by appropriate insurance, including liability and "umbrella" coverage for all owners. Such ownership should also be subject to a co-ownership agreement in which the owners agree to such matters as the allocation of income and expenses, restrictions on the rights of co-owners to sell or mortgage their interests, assignment of duties to the various owners to manage the property (for example, which owner will be responsible for paying bills, tending to maintenance and repairs, preparing tax returns, getting tenants, collecting rents, and so forth), and so forth.

The Louisiana statutes governing legal entities have numerous default provisions that apply unless the owners agree to override them; as but two examples of such traps for the unwary, each member of a limited liability company is entitled to cast a single vote and all decisions are made by majority vote of the members unless otherwise provided in the articles of organization or a written operating agreement, and unless the articles of incorporation provide for them, stockholders do not have preemptive rights; preemptive rights mean each voting stockholder has a right to subscribe for such proportion of new shares to be issued as the number of shares held by each stockholder bears to the total number of voting shares then outstanding.

A WILL IS A MUST

The absence of a proper will denies us the right to participate in crucial decisions affecting our loved ones at the great expense and inconvenience of those whom we intend to provide for and benefit: our spouses, children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters,friends, relatives, churches, favorite charities and so forth.

Don't spend an entire lifetime accumulating hard-earned assets, whether sizeable or modest, without giving thought to your own lifetime financial and retirement security and how to pass your assets on as intact as possible when you are not around.

Don't let your business expire when you do.

TAXES AND OUR WISHES

Without planning and a carefully drawn valid will, the tax collector runs amok while the State impersonally and rigidly forces itself upon our loved ones and dictates the distribution of what we have earned during our lifetime, often contrary to our desires and contrary to the welfare of our intended beneficiaries.

An out-of-date will and an obsolete financial, retirement and estate plan may not express our current wishes and may in general be outmoded for a variety of reasons.

ADVANTAGES TO A WILL

While there are countless advantages to having a properly drawn will, the following are among the most common advantages that a will offers to Louisiana residents.

You may decide who inherits your home, business and other property in many circumstances. Without a will, each of your children will receive an equal fractional share of each of your assets, disregarding whether a certain child or grandchild has special needs such as a disability, medical condition, financial need, and so forth.

For example, an adult child from a first marriage and a young child from a subsequent marriage are treated equally, even though the older child may be fully educated and gainfully employed, while the young child may still be in school.

Without a will, your surviving spouse will receive nothing more than a one-half interest in community property and a usufruct over your community interest.

Without a will, state law writes a will for you on a "one size fits all" basis, and one of your unintended heirs may be the State or distant relatives without needs. Non-traditional families and relationships are generally ignored by state law.

Some other advantages are summarized below.

COMMUNITY PROPERTY

Community property essentially means in Louisiana that each spouse owns one-half of the property acquired during your marriage in the absence of a marriage contract.

On the other hand, separate property typically includes either spouse's inherited property, property acquired by either spouse before marriage, property donated to a spouse, and the income from separate property which has been reserved by either spouse.

More complicated examples of community and separate property (and community and separate debts) are established by law or may be established by certain contracts, including marriage contracts, voluntary partition agreements, donations, and income reservation agreements.

CUSTODY OF YOUR CHILDREN

You may select a tutor or tutrix in your will who will have custody of your minor children and take care of them, seeing that your children are properly reared and educated while also administering your children's property. The court will honor your wishes unless the person you selected is disqualified or the court determines that the appointment would not be in the best interest of your children.

You can even decide to appoint a separate tutor or tutrix for your children's property, and you may dispense with the required bond if you feel comfortable in doing so; the court will normally follow your desires.

Your right to select a tutor or tutrix applies if you outlive your children's other parent or if you are the custodial parent in the case of divorce.

SPECIAL NEEDS

Your will can make special arrangements for children or grandchildren with special needs or circumstances; for example, you can make a gift (which may be subject to applicable gift taxes) during your lifetime and then provide in your will that you intend the gift to be in addition to any amounts which you have left that child in your will.

Similarly, it is possible to forgive a debt which an heir owes you.

MATCHING PEOPLE WITH PROPERTY

With a will, you are able to match heirlooms and property of sentimental value in accordance with your judgment of what is most appropriate: A mother may want to leave her grandmother's engagement ring to one child, a father may want to leave his prized fishing boat to another child, and so forth.

LOUISIANA FORCED HEIRSHIP

On January 1, 1996, significant changes in Louisiana law became effective that (along with other changes effective July 1, 1999) may require many Louisiana residents to revise their existing wills. These changes give parents and grandparents more discretion in writing wills.

The forced heirship law is unique to Louisiana and allows parents in their wills to divide their estates among their children however they choose only if their children are twenty-four years of age or older unless their children of any age are permanently incapable of taking care of their persons or administering their estates because of mental incapacity or physical infirmity at the time of the death of the parent and have not been disinherited for just cause.

All children are potentially "forced heirs" entitled to a portion of their parents' property because any child may become disabled after you sign your will.

Certain grandchildren are also potentially forced heirs.

The portions to which forced heirs are entitled may be subject to a usufruct or placed in trusts.

A usufruct is essentially the right to use another's property and the income from it.

A trust is essentially a way to provide for the management and distribution of your property for the benefit of someone whom you believe needs such assistance.

Both usufructs and trusts are described later.

USUFRUCTS

Without a will, your spouse's usufruct over your share of community property would end upon your spouse's remarriage, even if a step-parent has moved into the family home in order to help care for your minor children; an adult child could sue to force a sale of the family home at public auction with all attendant expenses and inconveniences and in disregard of the fact that most people would prefer that their surviving spouse have use of the family home at least until all of their children have become financially independent adults.

All of these and many other undesired results can be modified in a current and valid will.

EXECUTORS AND EXECUTRIXES

A will also enables you to select an executor or executrix who will have the duty of collecting, managing and preserving your assets by investing your funds, continuing your business, and repairing, maintaining and protecting your property. You can appoint more than one and instruct them to act jointly as watch dogs.

Your executor or executrix can be your spouse, one of your adult children, a trusted family friend, accountant or attorney, among others, or a corporate executor such as the trust department of a bank. You may select a combination of these, along with alternate or successor executors in the event that your first choice declines the office or resigns at some time.

You can also recommend that your executor continue the services of your financial advisor, insurance agent, accountant, attorney, banker, trust officer, stockbroker, professional asset manager, and others in whom you have confidence.

Your executor's compensation can be determined in your will and you can provide that your executor is not required to furnish a bond unless ordered by the court.

HOW WILL MY TAXES AND PROBATE EXPENSES BE PAID?

Planning should address providing cash or other liquid or potentially liquid assets and sources to pay the various expenses necessary to settle your estate without the forced sale of your home, business, or other valuable assets which you would ordinarily not have sold then.

These expenses may include Louisiana inheritance taxes, federal estate taxes, fiduciary income taxes, final state and federal income taxes, funeral expenses, debts, attorneys' fees, executor's fees, accountants' fees and other administration expenses.

Louisiana inheritance taxes are being reduced and phased out after June 30, 2004 provided succession proceedings are timely filed.

Inheritance and estate taxes can quickly add up since they can be based upon the value of your home, certain life insurance, retirement plan, family business, and so forth; these taxes are due generally nine months after death, and you will want to avoid a forced sale of your assets in that short period in order to generate cash to pay taxes and expenses, especially during adverse economic conditions.

Life insurance proceeds, listed stocks and bonds, stock redemption plans, and structuring assets to qualify for the payment of estate and inheritance taxes in installments are among the assets and techniques that can help avoid the necessity of a forced sale at depressed prices.

Survivorship life policies can also be helpful in tax planning. These are typically written on the lives of the husband and wife and the benefits are paid only after both are gone. Premiums are based on the joint life expectancy of the couple and are ordinarily less than individual policies.

Simply selling assets during your lifetime to generate cash or liquid assets must be carefully analyzed and thought through because such a sale may trigger income taxes or capital gains that could be reduced or even avoided if the assets are instead sold by your executor who can take advantage of tax laws allowing the favorable adjusting of the tax basis of assets.

Whether to sell (or invest in) stocks or bonds or some other investment vehicle is a complex decision. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index has returned an average of 15.6% annually including dividends versus 11.7% from the Lehman Brothers 30-year Treasury Bond Index for a recent 10-year period, according to Financial World. During that period, average inflation was 3.46%, according to Financial Strategies for Successful Retirement.

Future trends are subject to debate among experts; past performance is no guarantee of future results; yields and returns will fluctuate.

BENEFITS OF A WILL AND A LIFETIME BUSINESS, FINANCIAL, RETIREMENT, AND ESTATE PLAN

Benefits of a will and a lifetime business, financial, retirement, and estate plan include maximizing the property and revenues retained by your loved ones and minimizing expenses and income, gift, estate and inheritance taxes.

Whether your assets are modest or large, a will and a lifetime business, financial, retirement, and estate plan go hand in hand because the preparation and periodic review of your will and plan help you focus on your finances during your lifetime. We thus overcome our natural procrastination and resistance to consideration of personal mortality and of the possibility that your parents may one day become your responsibility and that your own children may one day become responsible for you.

Reality sets in and forces your complete consideration of difficult issues such as children's education, disability and life insurance, guardian choices, savings and investments (tax free, tax deferred, and taxable), retirement savings vehicles and employment benefits to supplement such things as non-probate assets (described below) and Social Security.

Most of us cannot rely on Social Security benefits alone for our retirements no matter how confident we are in the system.

The future of Social Security is widely debated. Both Experience, a publication of the Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association, and Elder Law Journal observe that there is probably no more enduring myth than the belief that a separate Social Security trust fund actually exists, except as a very arcane accounting technique.

Don't cut corners on getting good advice, as a late U.S. Supreme Court Justice reportedly did, costing his heirs substantial unnecessary taxes.

Do-it-yourself wills and plans are often not advisable in Louisiana. Preprinted forms, along with How-to-Write-Your-Own-Will and How-to-Avoid-Probate books are typically of limited use in Louisiana, especially if the promised results seem too good to be true.

It is always best to work with competent professionals to achieve the individualized results you desire.

TRAPS AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Do-it-yourself lifetime business, financial, retirement and estate planning and administration can result in tax traps and unintentional consequences. Consider typical misunderstandings involving the ownership designations applied to certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and similar bank accounts:

Many bank customers open multiple accounts such as some combination of the following: one for me, one for me and each of my children, and one for each of my children.

While this approach may provide some measure of comfort, account accessability and multiple FDIC insurance, you may have unintentionally triggered gift tax consequences when you exceed the maximum non-taxable limits.

Additionally, you may have unintentionally made the joint accounts available to the creditors (including the IRS) of your joint owner and subject to seizure by those creditors or levy by the IRS.

Under Louisiana law, bank accounts that are registered in alternate designations do not generally accomplish a donation to the alternate depositor. Bank accounts that evidence a depositor's intent that on the depositor's death the funds shall belong to the depositor's spouse or to one or more children, grandchildren, and so forth will belong to these beneficiaries if the account is styled "in trust for", "as trustee for", or "payable on death to" an appropriate designated beneficiary.

Not keeping track of the beneficiaries of your life insurance, IRAs, and retirement plans can also lead to tax traps and unintentional consequences. These should be reviewed often.

WHAT IS A DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY?

A Durable Power of Attorney designates a trusted person to act in your place during a sickness or other incapacity or disability to manage your financial affairs. You may also appoint an agent to make health care decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated.

WHAT IS A LIVING WILL?

A Living Will (witnessed by someone other than your relatives and heirs) is your declaration that if you should have a terminal and irrevocable condition you do not want to have your life futilely and unnecessarily prolonged by artificial means such as a respirator. It sets out your wishes about what life-prolonging treatments should be provided or withheld if you become unable to communicate these wishes for yourself.

Leaving difficult decisions up to family members is burdensome. One such extremely difficult decision is for a family to artificially extend life. Without clear guidance in a Living Will, the natural tendency would virtually always be to extend, reports Trusts & Estates, a journal for estate planning professionals.

WHAT IS A LIVING TRUST?

A Living Trust is a trust created during your lifetime and is sometimes recommended to protect your assets and for other reasons, including "avoiding probate". They are sometimes called Probate Avoidance Trusts.

Such trusts are far less often advisable or necessary in Louisiana than in many other states and may in many cases be disadvantageous for a number of reasons including by way of illustration the difference between rules applicable to the income taxation of revocable trusts and those that govern estates, along with certain other potentially adverse tax consequences and traps.

The advantages and disadvantages must be weighed in each case.

Living trusts do not necessarily rescue you from probate or reduce taxes, the American Bar Association Journal observes.

In many cases, the immediate costs and administrative burdens involved in setting up a living trust and transferring assets to it outweigh any potential savings that may occur by avoiding probate in the future, notes The Banking Law Journal.

TRUSTS

You may set aside money through trusts, which we described earlier as essentially a way to provide for the management and distribution of property for the benefit of someone whom you believe needs such assistance.

Available to people of widely varying incomes, a trust gives you choices to arrange for needs such as paying for tuitions, college expenses, medical emergencies and the expenses of minors and special children or grandchildren, elderly parents and the like.

One of the advantages to a trust in your will is that if you leave assets to your children or grandchildren outright, they will have unlimited access to these assets when they reach age eighteen, which may in your judgment be too young. Accordingly, you may provide for limited distributions for education and so forth to be made periodically while delaying their unlimited access by creating a trust for each child or grandchild to stay in effect until the child or grandchild reaches what you consider to be a more suitable age.

You may select as trustee a third party manager (including a bank's trust department or other professional asset manager). You may also select your spouse, even if your spouse is one of the beneficiaries of the trust.

Trusts may be used in order to avoid heavy taxation upon your spouse's death where it was not wise to use the entire marital deduction.

Your beneficiary options include designating your spouse and children as income beneficiaries and your grandchildren as principal beneficiaries.

LIFETIME FAMILY TAX PLANNING FOR LARGER ESTATES

If your net assets including life insurance and your family home and retirement accounts are worth more than $675,000 (increasing to $1 million in increments by 2006), a will and proper planning can reduce or even eliminate federal estate and related taxes.

As three common examples, lifetime family tax planning should include:

• the prudent use of the marital deduction which allows you to leave an unlimited (although this is not always wise) amount of property to your spouse tax-free,
• generation-skipping transfers, and
• disbursements from individual retirement plans (IRAs), and from other retirement plans, including the very advantageous 401(k) plans.

Unlike IRAs, with few exceptions 401(k) plans offer some form of matching contributions from the plan sponsor. Your contributions are made pre-tax. Both you and your employed spouse may participate in such plans that have much higher annual contribution limits than IRAs.

Among other possibilities to be considered in a comprehensive plan for larger estates are:

• income shifting devices,
• trusts, including irrevocable life insurance trusts, and
• matrimonial agreements to avoid the Louisiana community property system or to change from a separate property system or a mixed system to a community property system, or to transform the status of property already owned.

Other strategies include:

• estate freezing techniques fixing the value of certain assets at current levels to avoid transfer taxes on any increased value or to shift income to a lower bracketed family member,
• preservation of family business interests, and
• maximizing prudently the property that is not subject to probate.

Options are constantly changing, as evidenced by the Small Business Job Protection Act that recently permitted Electing Small Business Trusts. These trusts provide significant opportunities in the area of family business planning, the Corporate Tax and Business Planning Review verifies in Tax Management.

AVOIDING PROBATE

Probate is the process in which a court determines the validity of a will and supervises the distribution of the assets that are subject to the will.

Non-probate assets are ordinarily not subject to court proceedings and pass automatically to the intended recipients. Such property commonly includes certain annuities, proceeds from life insurance policies, trusts, pensions, and IRAs with named beneficiaries, and employee benefits. Also real estate ownership in states other than Louisiana may be subject to joint ownership which may operate to pass property automatically to the surviving owner.

However, there can be major disadvantages to having non-probate property. For example, if a husband and wife own too much property jointly in states other than Louisiana, this may adversely affect the marital deduction which could otherwise have allowed you to leave property to your spouse free of federal estate taxes.

Moreover, the process of converting assets, including life insurance, to a non-probate status can present timing and gift tax problems, especially for example if the insured is terminally ill or uninsurable.

Non-probate assets are not necessarily free of Louisiana inheritance taxes or federal estate taxes.

LIFETIME GIFTS

Unlimited amounts may usually be given without federal gift tax if you pay directly to service providers for tuition for education and for medical care for any individual. You may also donate cash or other property with a value of $10,000 (indexed for inflation) per recipient per year with very limited exceptions.

Gifts by a husband and wife can be considered made one-half by each. In any of these cases, you would have reduced your taxable estate.

RETIREMENT PLAN DISBURSEMENTS

Retirement plan disbursements may include funds remaining in qualified retirement plans; these can be earmarked for your loved ones or some portion can be fully deductible as charitable gifts to charities, churches, and qualified non-profit organizations.

CHARITABLE REMAINDER TRUSTS AND LIFE ESTATE AGREEMENTS

Some other examples of lifetime family tax planning include charitable remainder trusts and life estate agreements.

Under a charitable remainder trust, it is sometimes possible to produce an income tax deduction, avoid a capital gain tax, increase your cash flow, and increase what your heirs receive.

Through a life estate agreement, you can give your home to a charity, church or non-profit organization and enjoy a substantial tax deduction, while living in your residence.

ALTERNATIVE BEQUESTS

You may also want your will to provide for alternative bequests so that if one loved one does not outlive you, property will go to another loved one or to your favorite charity, church or other non-profit organization, including retirement facilities.

MAXIMUM DEDUCTIONS, EXCLUSIONS, AND EXEMPTIONS

The planning of a will is an excellent occasion to review the composition of your assets in order to make sure that maximum deductions, exclusions, and exemptions will be applicable.

As one example, life insurance policies or annuities without named beneficiaries normally are subject to the Louisiana inheritance tax, and policies on the life of another (such as your spouse, children, or grandchildren) are subject to the inheritance tax; however, your ownership can be changed to avoid this tax, frequently without decreasing your spendable income.

LIFE, DISABILITY, HEALTH, AND LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE

Insurance is often a very valuable asset, so it should be reviewed for proper ownership and beneficiary designations.

Life, Disability, Health, and Long-Term Care insurance should also be reviewed to make sure that their purposes and amounts meet your current desires. As an example, you may own a life insurance policy that you originally bought to ensure the payment of your home mortgage or some other expense such as your children's education and it has remained in force throughout the years, long after your mortgage has been paid off and your children have completed their education.

Such a policy makes an excellent gift in honor of or in memory of a loved one in an amount equal to what would have been their portion of your estate. Your gift lives on in a special way.

A decision to drop a cash-value policy is often complicated by tax consequences or the difficulty of analyzing a policy's real cost and value. Transferring the cash value into an annuity is one possible solution. Another solution is to get an accelerated death benefit rider if you become terminally ill.

For employees, executives, and professionals leaving employment, few issues raise as much anxiety as how they will obtain affordable personal and family health coverage once coverage as an active employee ends, notes Estate Planning, a journal for estate planning and family asset management.

Remember that ordinary health insurance and Medicare don't pay for long-term care. In general, need-based government programs provide only the bare necessities for disabled persons, according to Probate & Property published by the American Bar Association.

People with terminal illnesses or chronic ones such as Alzheimer's sometimes seek a viatical settlement insurance transaction, where an insurer buys your term insurance policy for a percentage of the face value. Variations are about to be offered that will allow borrowing against a term policy instead of selling it outright and to offer a viatical option with group life policies, according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine.

FOR HOW LONG IS MY WILL AND PLAN GOOD?

An annual financial "physical" and self-appraisal in connection with your birthday is an excellent idea. No will or plan is intended to last forever.

All wills, plans (financial, retirement, and estate) and beneficiary designations should be reviewed when a major life event occurs such as whenever there are significant changes in your family relationships, including births, adoptions, deaths, marriages, divorces, estrangements, and reconciliations, changes in your health and financial needs and changes in the health and financial needs of your spouse, heirs, and others affected by your will and plan. Make sure that they still reflect your wishes and needs.

You should also update your will and your lifetime financial, retirement and estate plan whenever there are substantial increases or decreases in the size, nature and composition of your assets, to take into account any changes in the law affecting existing wills (including tax laws), or upon your change of residence from Louisiana.

CRUCIAL PERSONAL DECISIONS

A will and a lifetime financial, retirement and estate plan allow you to participate in many crucial decisions affecting your loved ones and to avoid numerous uncertainties and delays that are inconsistent with your desires and needs.

A well structured will also saves unnecessary taxes, costs, bonds, legal mortgages, court proceedings, delays and legal fees, all of which can be minimized and frequently eliminated by proper planning and the intelligent choice of options not available if you do not have a will.

ALL ADULTS NEED A WILL AND A PLAN

Married or single, young or not, rich or not, all adults who have loved ones and a home or savings or valuables should have coordinated lifetime business plans, financial plans, retirement plans, estate plans, and wills prepared with the assistance of professionals.

GLOSSARY AND HELPFUL PLANNING TIPS AND EXPLANATIONS

For your convenience, many of the terms, topics, and definitions used in this article are included in a Glossary in their original or expanded form along with many others frequently used in magazine articles, trade journals, and books that you may read on the topics covered by this article.

The Glossary also includes interrelated topics such as asset protection, deferred compensation, employment benefits, estate planning, financial planning, income tax reduction, inheritance planning, investments, payment of education expenses, and preserving family businesses.

Numerous helpful planning tips and answers to questions that we are frequently asked are also included in the Glossary.

The terms and topics are generally listed alphabetically for the reader's convenience instead of being grouped by topics or categories, but related terms and topics are cross-referenced for your further convenience.

Updated materials and tips will appear here on our website at www.monbar.com. When visiting our website, you may click on underlined terms in italics for easy cross reference.

See Table of Contents
or continue with the Glossary.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Patrick J. Browne, Albert Mintz, Omer F. Kuebel, Jr., Edmond C. Haasé, III, Stephen P. Schott, and J. Scott Loeb are with the law firm of Montgomery, Barnett, Brown, Read, Hammond & Mintz, L.L.P. based in New Orleans. Their practice emphasizes estate planning, wills, trusts, probate, successions, taxation, and business transactions.

Mr. Browne (A.B. and Juris Doctorate, Loyola University) has published articles, lectured extensively, including at Loyola University where he was an Adjunct Professor, and conducted seminars on numerous areas of law. He is a member of the New Orleans Estate Planning Council; Louisiana State Bar Association (House of Delegates, 1970-1978, Board of Governors, 1978-1980, Committee on Bar Admissions, 1979-1983, (Corporation and Business Law Section; Trusts, Estate, Probate and Immovable Property Law Section; Consumer Protection and Bankruptcy Law Section; Civil Law and Litigation Section); American Bar Association (Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section; Business Law Section; State and Local Government Law Section); New Orleans Bar Association (Probate, Trust and Estate Planning Committee and Real Property Law Committee); Loyola University Law School Visiting Committee; the National Association of Mortgage Bankers; the Louisiana Mortgage Bankers Association; the Louisiana Land Title Association; and Vice-President of Equitable Title Agency, Inc. He is admitted to practice in all Louisiana state courts and the Louisiana Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern District and Middle Districts of Louisiana, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Board certified as an Estate Planning and Administration Specialist and as a Tax Specialist by the Louisiana State Bar Association, Mr. Mintz has written and lectured widely. Mr. Mintz is a graduate of Tulane University (B.B.A.; Juris Doctorate) and a member of the New Orleans Estate Planning Council. He is engaged in business and corporate law, including taxation, mergers and acquisitions, banking, financing and commercial transactions, real estate, estate planning, wills, trust and probate, and antitrust. He has served as an advisor and as counsel for New York banks and their attorneys. He has broad experience in taxation, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, probate and estate administration, general corporate and partnership law including formation of numerous corporations, ordinary partnerships and limited partnerships for various clients; preparation of private placement memoranda; client counseling in connection with federal securities law and state Blue Sky laws; and representation of board of directors in general conduct of corporate affairs and in disputes with shareholders. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Louisiana State Bar Association (Chairman, Indigent Clients Fund Committee), the New Orleans Bar Association (Executive Committee, 1971-74; Ethics Committee Chairman), the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, and the American Law Institute. Mr. Mintz also serves as a member of the Tulane Law Review Board of Managers Editors, on the Advisory Board of Tulane Law School, and on Tulane's Corporate Law Institute Advisory Committee. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Tulane Emeritus Club. He is a Charter Member of the Louisiana Bar Foundation and the Louisiana Historical Society. He is admitted to practice before the Louisiana Supreme Court and all other Louisiana state courts, the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Mintz has been involved in numerous civic, religious, and charitable organizations as a board member, including the Jewish Endowment Foundation, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and Touro Infirmary Board of Trustees and Touro Infirmary Foundation, for which he was chosen as the 1999 recipient of the Judah Touro Society Award for his outstanding contribution to the hospital and its Foundation over an extended period of time. He also served as past Chairman of the Civil Affairs Committee and State Legislature Committee (1968-69) of the Chamber of Commerce. A brief biography of Mr. Mintz can be found in Who's Who in American and Who's Who in the World. Within the business community, he was Chairman of the Civic Affairs Committee for the Chamber of Commerce, as well as Chairman of the State Legislation Committee. He served on the board of directors for Higgins, Incorporated. He now manages the Hurwitz Mintz Realty Company and the Haeuser-Mintz Realty companies. He is a director of the many F. Strauss regional interests. He was on the board of Self Service Restaurants, Inc. (Burger King) and he helped develop Lake Forest starting back when it was all just vacant land. Just recently he was heavily involved in several major acquisitions–K&B by Rite Aid, Wemco by Randa Corporation, Glazer Steel by Triple S Steel Supply, and Sunbelt Manufacturing Incorporated by Tyco International Corporation. He was also counsel in various bank acquisitions leading to the present Bank One Corporation. Mr. Mintz is well known for his work in tax, estate planning, real estate, and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Kuebel (B.B.A. and LL.B, Tulane University) is a former Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Business School. He is a member of the New Orleans Estate Planning Council; the Louisiana State Bar Association; the New Orleans Bar Association (Executive Committee 1983-1984); and New Orleans Notaries Association. He is engaged in real estate law, business and commercial law and general civil practice, including transactions, closings, probate, successions, corporations, contracts, agreements, sales, leases, options, mortgages, security rights, real estate development, subdivisions, zoning, planning, servitudes, easements, deed restrictions and real estate title matters.

Mr. Haasé is a graduate of Loyola University with a Juris Doctorate degree where he was a member of the Loyola University Law Review; he is also a graduate of Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting. Mr. Haasé is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant and he is an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Law School. His areas of practice include general corporate law, insurance regulatory law, transportation, commercial leasing, franchising, expropriations, real estate, state and local taxation, and professional liability. He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, New Orleans Bar Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants.

Mr. Schott received his undergraduate degree in accounting, magna cum laude, from Southeastern Louisiana University and he received his Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola University. While practicing law full time, he received a Master of Laws in Energy and Environment, with distinction, from Tulane University. While pursuing his Master of Laws degree, a law review article Mr. Schott wrote, entitled "Lender Liability Under CERCLA - Past, Present and Future" was published in 11 UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 1. Mr. Schott is also the author of "Louisiana Environmental Law" published by Government Institutes, Inc. Mr. Schott is a member of the American Bar Association, the Louisiana State Bar Association, the New Orleans Bar Association, the Environmental Law Institute, the Advisory Board for the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, and BNA's Environmental Due Diligence Guide State Law Advisory Committee. His areas of practice concentration are environmental law, business litigation, real estate, business, and banking, finance, and commercial transactions. Before joining Montgomery, Barnett, Mr. Schott clerked for the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.

Mr. Loeb is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a Juris Doctorate; he is also a graduate of Baker University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Business. Mr. Loeb is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, American Bar Association, New Orleans Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, and Young Leadership Council. He is admitted to practice in all Louisiana state courts and the Louisiana Supreme Court, U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Firth Circuit. Mr. Loeb is also engaged in commercial trial work and bankruptcy litigation and is involved extensively in start-up business planning and private equity funding.

Other members of the Montgomery Barnett business section include Donald W. Doyle, B.A. and Juris Doctorate; Stanley McDermott, Jr., B.A. and LL.B.; Daniel Lund, Juris Doctorate; Nathan T. Gisclair, Jr., B.A. and Juris Doctorate; and John Y. Pearce, Juris Doctorate.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Gaven Dall Kammer, who has a B.S. in Management and a Juris Doctorate, Jason R. Anders, who has a B.S. in Business Administration, an M.B.A. in Finance and a Juris Doctorate, and Myra J. Santos.

This discussion should not be interpreted as tax, legal, financial or insurance advice for any individual. You should consult with your personal tax, legal, financial or insurance professional for any specific guidance.