Ethics Issues in Estate Planning

Most attorneys have a strong sense of what is ethical (maybe "proper" or "right" is a better term), and the vast majority of estate planners are of a personality type that makes them sensitive to concerns about ethics, conflicts, and propriety. It is part of what drives them to specialize in this area of legal service. What some attorneys (and estate planners are not immune) may lack, however, is a sense of the ethics issues and problems that can arise. This session is designed to heighten sensitivity by examining real world problems that raise real world ethics issues. 

The rules governing the legal profession are not about morality as much as they are guidelines and prohibitions that regulate the practice of law. Learning them is not difficult. This session will raise one’s level of consciousness about certain "predictable" ethical dilemmas in estate planning and fiduciary administration, in situations that often generate or showcase problems or issues. In some situations the ethics issue is clear and the appropriate action is easily identifiable. In many other cases, there is no "correct" response to the problems that are identified or, worse, there is no good way out of a thicket. In these circumstances, a good result is recognition of the problem before it occurs; often a conscious anticipation and a sensitivity to these concerns is the best remedy. The task, therefore, is to identify the types of issues that must be considered and the types of context in which they often arise.

Program Schedule

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2009

1:00 p.m. Ethics Issues in Estate Planning - Panel discussion--Messrs. Pennell and Gadsden and Ms. Miyasaki

Audience Questions and Answers

3:00 p.m. Adjournment

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