“Difficult” Clients 

Explore how to define, spot, course correct and terminate “difficult” clients and client relationships.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.75 hr | 0.75 Ethics
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    “Difficult” Clients 
    4.21 out of 5 stars
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    Good presentation.

$70   Add to Cart
2023 Guardianship Bundle for Attorneys Ad Litem 

Session 01: Role of the Guardian - Examine the duties and responsibilities of a guardian under Texas law and guardianship administration, from initiation to closing, including the code requirements of selling and leasing property, ethical issues, and more. Session 02: Role of the Ad Litem - A review of the responsibilities of the attorney ad litem and guardian ad litem in guardianship proceedings with an emphasis on practical application of the statutes, conduct in uncontested and contested proceedings, and pointers on applications for fees. Session 03: Alternatives to Guardianship Including Supports and Services - An examination and discussion from the perspectives of the bench and in practice on lesser restrictive alternatives and available supports and services in guardianship. Which work? Which do not? And, how, in every case, the answer is, "It depends." Session 04: Guardianships During Divorce - Two of the most difficult legal proceedings a person can go through in life are divorces and guardianships. Explore how to handle the challenges that arise when these two practice areas collide. Session 05: Things Every Texas Estate Planner Should Know About Advising New to Texas Clients, Including Transfer of Guardianship from Another State - An overview of common issues for Texas Estate Planners to address when working with clients who have moved to Texas from another state, such as identifying tax issues and updating estate planning documents. Also hear a discussion of the steps for transferring a guardianship case from another state, from closing the case in the sending state to acceptance in Texas. PLEASE NOTE: To claim Texas Guardianship Ad Litem credit for the presentations that include guardianship hours, download the guardianship accreditation documentation (found here) as you claim your general MCLE credit at the end of this course and submit the affidavit to the State Bar of Texas.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 4.50 hrs | 1.50 Ethics | 4.00 Guardianship
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    2023 Guardianship Bundle for Attorneys Ad Litem 
    5 out of 5 stars
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    The statistics provided at the intro were very informative. The presenter clearly knew her field very well.

$205   Add to Cart
2023 Legislative Update: Trust, Estate, and Guardianship Legislation 

Update on trust, estate and guardianship legislation passed during the 88th legislative session. 

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.75 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    2023 Legislative Update: Trust, Estate, and Guardianship Legislation 
    3 out of 5 stars
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$60   Add to Cart
2023 Medicaid Update

Latest developments affecting planning and applications for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care and home care.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.75 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
  • show rating
    2023 Medicaid Update
    3.36 out of 5 stars
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$60   Add to Cart
A Decade of Trust Decanting in Texas 

Texas adopted its trust decanting statute in 2013. Ten years (and several amendments) later, practitioners are still grappling with when and how to decant a trust. Hear an overview of trust decanting in Texas, with a specific focus on decanting in response to unanticipated elder law and special needs issues.

Includes: Video Audio Paper

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.50 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    A Decade of Trust Decanting in Texas 
    3 out of 5 stars
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$55   Add to Cart
Accessing and Managing Digital Assets After Death 

Gain insight on basic information about digital assets to estate planners and attorneys representing executors or administrators of estates, while also providing practical advice for how to access and manage those assets before and after death.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.75 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    Accessing and Managing Digital Assets After Death 
    3.45 out of 5 stars
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    simply presented; learned a lot I did not know

$60   Add to Cart
Drafting for the Trustee in a Challenging Environment 

Explore 20 drafting ideas to help the trustee in the administration of a trust and to minimize their liability. The materials include “Trustee Boot Camp: A Checklist for New Trustees.”

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.50 hr | 0.50 Ethics
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    Drafting for the Trustee in a Challenging Environment 
    5 out of 5 stars
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$65   Add to Cart
How Executors Can Navigate the Drama of Administering Estates with Real Property 

A review of an executor’s powers and fiduciary duties relating to the administration of real estate in probate proceedings, including the interplay between a beneficiary’s vested ownership interest and an executor’s right of possession, whether a power of sale is really all that powerful, and dealing with a surviving spouse’s homestead rights.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.50 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    How Executors Can Navigate the Drama of Administering Estates with Real Property 
    3.5 out of 5 stars
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$55   Add to Cart
IRAs in Estate Planning: What You Need to Know

We’ve seen a lot of changes in how IRA’s and retirement plans are taxed after the participant’s death, especially when left in trust. Here’s what you need to know when planning an estate with significant tax-deferred assets.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.50 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
  • show rating
    IRAs in Estate Planning: What You Need to Know
    3.58 out of 5 stars
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$55   Add to Cart
Life Insurance Settlements: Why Clients Don’t Have to Die or Be Terminally Ill to Get Value 

Gain insight into why clients purchase life insurance and confirm that life insurance is an asset that (i) requires and can benefit from active management as the contract matures, (ii) can be sold similar to other financial assets and (iii) may have a value to the policyowner that is significantly greater than the cash surrender value. Review the various types of insurance commonly used in estate planning, the evolution of universal life insurance that has contributed to the development of the life settlement market, the tax treatment of life settlements should a policy be sold in a life settlement, options for working with a life settlement for clients who need additional funds for retirement and a discussion of trust owned life insurance and how the life settlement option is of particular importance for fiduciaries to understand to avoid potential liability for a policy surrender or lapse.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.75 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    Life Insurance Settlements: Why Clients Don’t Have to Die or Be Terminally Ill to Get Value 
    Not yet rated
$60   Add to Cart
Not So Fast! Deciding Whether and How to Discuss Federal Estate Tax Returns with Personal Representatives 

The federal estate tax return is often not mentioned to the client in the course of a probate attorney’s representation of an executor or administrator of a decedent’s estate. Given such factors as the looming sunset of the current gift and estate tax exemption, the opportunity for portability of a married decedent’s unused exclusion to a surviving spouse, and negative consequences that can result from failing to file a federal estate tax return, this presentation offers some steps for the probate attorney to consider when deciding whether to include a discussion of the federal estate tax return when representing an executor or administrator of a decedent's estate.  

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.50 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    Not So Fast! Deciding Whether and How to Discuss Federal Estate Tax Returns with Personal Representatives 
    4.5 out of 5 stars
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$55   Add to Cart
Pooled Trusts for Older Clients 

How to find, use, and compare pooled trusts for older clients, including clients  for themselves, spouses, and other family members. Whether clients have substantial or modest resources, there are a variety of pooled trust strategies to consider suggesting to older clients who are seeking to protect care options throughout the future.

Includes: Video Audio Paper

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.50 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    Pooled Trusts for Older Clients 
    Not yet rated
$55   Add to Cart
The Corporate Transparency Act: YES, It Impacts Estate Planners!

The Corporate Transparency Act of 2020 mandates that certain business entities disclose beneficial ownership information to FinCEN to combat illegal activities such as money laundering, terrorism financing, and tax fraud. Estate planners who use business entities for asset holding or wealth structuring should be aware of the CTA's reporting requirements and possible penalties for noncompliance, as some of these entities may fall under the Act's purview.

Includes: Video Audio Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.50 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
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    The Corporate Transparency Act: YES, It Impacts Estate Planners!
    5 out of 5 stars
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$55   Add to Cart
Things Every Texas Estate Planner Should Know About Advising Clients New to the State 

An overview of common issues for Texas Estate Planners to address when working with clients who have moved to Texas from another state, such as identifying tax issues and updating estate planning documents. Also hear a discussion of the steps for transferring a guardianship case from another state, from closing the case in the sending state to acceptance in Texas.

Includes: Video Audio Paper

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.75 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
  • show rating
    Things Every Texas Estate Planner Should Know About Advising Clients New to the State 
    3.5 out of 5 stars
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    Rate the overall teaching effectiveness and presentation skills of faculty for the course.
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$60   Add to Cart
To Fund…or Not to Fund: When Estate Plans Go Awry 

What do you do when the original estate planner is frustrated because of actions taken by the testator after execution of his or her will? What if the parties refuse to fund a QTIP (Marital), Credit Shelter (Bypass) Trust or other Testamentary Trust? Hear about the practical, tax, and legal issues the attorney should consider.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 0.75 hr
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
  • show rating
    To Fund…or Not to Fund: When Estate Plans Go Awry 
    3.88 out of 5 stars
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    Rate the overall teaching effectiveness and presentation skills of faculty for the course.
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$60   Add to Cart
What All Estate and Probate Attorneys Need to Know: Medicaid Estate Recovery and Medicaid Planning and Drafting 

Session 01: What All Estate and Probate Attorneys Need to Know About Medicaid Estate Recovery - A practical guide to the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (MERP) in two parts. Address the preplanning techniques estate planners can (and cannot) use to avoid MERP and provide a step-by-step guide for how to defend against a MERP claim in the probate estate of a Medicaid recipient who did not engage in the necessary preplanning. Session 02: What All Estate and Probate Attorneys Need to Know About Medicaid Planning and Drafting - Issue-spotting and discussion highlighting elder law issues for which every estate planner and probate attorney should be on the lookout.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 1.50 hrs
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 10/31/2024
  • show rating
    What All Estate and Probate Attorneys Need to Know: Medicaid Estate Recovery and Medicaid Planning and Drafting 
    3.83 out of 5 stars
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$85   Add to Cart
Hooked on CLE: August 2023

THIS MONTH: Commercial Contracts and The Most Heavily Litigated Provisions • Reproductive and Maternal Care in an Ever-Changing Legal Landscape • The Monroe Doctrine: The Duty to Defend under Texas Law and When Insurers Must Pay for Counsel • Bad Facts: Making Lemonade From Lemons • ​Protecting Individual Trustees Who Protect Beneficiaries

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 4.00 hrs | 1.00 Ethics
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 7/31/2024
  • show rating
    Hooked on CLE: August 2023
    4.18 out of 5 stars
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    good speakers

    they were all good.

$99   Add to Cart
Hooked on CLE: June 2023

Session 1: A Lawyer's Duty in a Democracy Under Attack - An examination of lawyers' duty to support the Constitution and democratic principles when they are being challenged.  Session 2: What the Surviving Spouse Needs to Do, and What to Do if They Don’t - A practical discussion of the steps a surviving spouse can or should take when their spouse dies and what to do later if those steps are not taken. Session 3: Medical Staff, Nursing Staff, and Patient Rights in a Post-COVID World - As we move past the pandemic into a post-public health emergency world, hospitals are contending with physician and nursing staffing shortages, changing trends in the use of physicians and advanced practice professionals on medical staffs, increasing violence by patients, and regulatory pressures. The speakers discuss these issues and options for responding to them. Session 4: Artist Rights: The Future of the Copyright Royalty Board for Songwriters - ​This panel discusses the history and future of the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board, the federal agency that sets the royalty rate for the government’s compulsory licenses for songs and webcasting among other. Session 5: Workers’ Comp 101: The Basics of the Workers’ Compensation System in Texas - An overview of the Workers’ Compensation System outlining the responsibilities of insurance carriers, employers, and self-insureds in the administration of work injuries in Texas.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 4.00 hrs | 1.00 Ethics
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 5/31/2024
  • show rating
    Hooked on CLE: June 2023
    4.14 out of 5 stars
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    How would you rate the value of the materials provided as part of the course?

    The political slant of the first presentation has no place in mandatory CLE, especially in ethics credits. The copyright discussion was largely an entertaining free for all with knowledgeable speakers. Generally a good collection of presentations. Thanks.

    Interesting presentations in a variety of areas of the law.

    good presenters

    I thought Michael Curry's "speech" was poor. The rest was good.

$99   Add to Cart
Hooked on CLE: May 2023

THIS MONTH: Geopolitics and Extreme Weather Impacts on the Energy Markets • Bow Your Head and Play: A Discussion on Kennedy v. Bremerton • Sign Right Here: A Survey of Provisions for Your Attorney-Client Agreements • Defensive Documentation from Hiring to Firing • Estate Tax: Best Strategies for Estates and Gifts Leading Up to 2026

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 4.00 hrs | 1.00 Ethics
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 4/30/2024
  • show rating
    Hooked on CLE: May 2023
    4.14 out of 5 stars
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    Rate the overall teaching effectiveness and presentation skills of faculty for the course.
    How would you rate the value of the materials provided as part of the course?

    Please note: Ratings are for sessions 1, 2, 3, and 5. I did not think session 4 was very good.

$99   Add to Cart
Answer Bar: Considering a Special Needs Trust

Session 1: Public Benefits Overview and Key Concepts - Hear an overview of the different public benefits programs that may impact a special needs client, and explore Texas-specific waivers as well as federal and state regulations. Session 2: Special Needs Trusts 101: The Basics - An overview of the basics of special needs trusts and public benefits including selection of appropriate trust option, pitfalls to avoid and case examples.  Session 3: Redlining the Basics of a SNT - Dissect a basic third party SNT to highlight the various provisions and boilerplate language that make the SNT a unique animal in the special needs planning ecosystem. Session 4: Maximizing Public Benefits - Review the basics of SSI, Medicaid and other disability benefits that trustees must know and protect; and catch up on recent changes and trends affecting trust beneficiaries who depend on those benefits. Session 5: Working Together: Texas ABLE Accounts and Special Needs Trusts - Learn about the tax-advantaged Texas Achieving a Better Life Experience Program (Texas ABLE®), a disability savings program created specifically for Texans with qualifying disabilities. This session covers specifics about Texas ABLE and how it can be used in conjunction with Special Needs Trusts, while helping to preserve state and federal means-tested benefits, including SSI and Medicaid. Learn how recent regulatory and legislative developments have continued to expand the flexibility and impact of ABLE accounts. Session 6: Initial Client Meeting Guidance and Resources - Exploring the art of focusing client appointments and staying on track.   Session 7: Reporting a Trust - Address practical steps in determining when, how, and to whom special needs trusts should be reported. Session 8: Pooled Trusts: Your Answer to Transfers and Over 65 Strategies - Is the size of a trust no longer economically feasible? Are you worried about a transfer of assets penalty? A pooled trust sub-account be a better fit! Discuss transfers from a D4A to a D4C, the authority, the pitfalls and the successes. Solutions for people over 65 who need a self-settled SNT are limited but a pooled trusts and the “half-a-loaf” strategy may be considered as an appropriate option. Session 9: SSA Regional Trust Leads Presentation Regarding SSI Trusts - The SSI trust review business process requires evaluation of trusts that need a resource determination (such as new trusts or amended trusts) in all initial claim and post-eligibility events. Regional Trust Leads and Trust Reviewers evaluate trusts to determine if they meet the SSI eligibility requirements of (d)(4)(A) and (C). This session provides background information, describes the basic eligibility requirements, and provides applicable examples. In addition, hear the latest regarding recent Program Operations Manual System updates and the number of trust review cases SSA reviews. Session 10: Masters of SNT—What I Know Now That I Wish I Had Known Back Then - Four of our most experienced SNT attorneys share what they have learned that they don’t usually talk about on microphones: how they have found the work they love; developed a passion for forms and systems; attracted and selected the best clients; built supportive and inspiring networks; and learned from their mistakes.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

  • Total Credit Hours:
  • 8.25 hrs | 1.00 Ethics
  • Credit Info
  • TX, CA
  • TX MCLE credit expires: 4/30/2024
  • show rating
    Answer Bar: Considering a Special Needs Trust
    3.5 out of 5 stars
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    Rate the overall teaching effectiveness and presentation skills of faculty for the course.
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$355   Add to Cart