The eStatePlan™ w/Nevada Trustee

Significant opportunities are available for trustors who appoint a chartered corporate trustee as the successor trustee of their living trusts, especially when combined with the functionality of The eStatePlan™ platform. By using professional trustee services sitused in a favorable jurisdiction, estate planning clients can be assured that their trust estates will have maximum protection while being administered with professional standards and regulated accountability.

State-licensed corporate trustees provide experience and compliance with applicable legal requirements; objectivity and impartiality in carrying out the trustor's intentions; reliability and continuity that avoid costly administrative interruptions; consistency and longevity for multi-generational plans; custodial administration over Designated Beneficiary Trusts for Inherited IRAs; custody of all advisor-directed investments with professional oversight; flexible business-succession management options for family entities; formal record-keeping protocols for trust accounting requirements; and estate settlement administration by a professional, state-regulated entity.

The dynamics of The eStatePlan platform provide a way for clients to select and apply an optimal jurisdiction as the situs for their living trust regardless of where they reside. The system also makes it easy to utilize regulated corporate trustee services. Combining a pro-trust jurisdiction with professional trustee services forms a solid and enduring trust estate plan, destined for a proper future settlement.

Five states — Alaska, Delaware, Nevada, South Dakota, and Wyoming — are considered by consensus as the jurisdictions providing a superior body of law for pro-trust administration.

More specifically, with the combination of grantor-favored fiduciary administration rules, clear and complete electronic signature laws, and the commitment to codify common law by statute, Nevada stands above the rest in providing the most attractive trust administration venue in the country. When applied with the services of a Nevada corporate trustee, clients equipped with eStatePlan's proprietary online dynamics are able to create and maintain full integration with their eStatePlan service providers.

Trust administration law in the State of Nevada is codified primarily in Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) Chapter 163 of Trusts. Under Nevada jurisdiction, there are prominent estate planning benefits for both residents and non-Nevada residents.

No State Income Tax. Nevada allows ALL trusts sitused in Nevada to be EXEMPT from state income tax and realized capital gains on principal otherwise imposed at state taxation levels. Taxable income retained rather than distributed outright to a beneficiary will be added to the corpus of the trust without state income tax liability regardless of the grantor's state of domicile. (This exempt rule applies to living trusts of non-resident grantors only after the non-resident grantor's decease where the grantor was a resident of a state that imposes an income tax.)

No Unnecessary Trustee Accountings. Nevada law allows the trust instrument to avoid requiring the corporate trustee to provide frequent accountings (at least annual) and unnecessary reporting to trust beneficiaries. All trusts sitused in Nevada can be grantor-opted-out of cumbersome reporting requirements — or, if annual reporting is otherwise prescribed by the grantor, trustee reports may be submitted electronically by email — and beneficiary-opted-out if so chosen.

Recognition of Independent Advisors. Nevada is one of only a few jurisdictions that have codified directed-trust statutes. Applied directed-trust law recognizes the authority of a client-appointed Trust Investment Advisor (TIA) to direct the general investment-decision activities concerning a trust's assets. A client's financial advisor may continue to manage the client's assets for trust investment purposes even after the client's decease, unimpeded by state law.

Recognition of Trust Protectors. Nevada is one of only a few jurisdictions that have legislatively recognized the authority of a Trust Protector. Trust protectors can be granted broad-based authority, second only to the client-grantor, to entirely remove any trustee — including the initially appointed corporate trustee and/or the investment advisor — either during or after the client's decease.

Practical Administrative Procedures. Nevada recognizes realistic and flexible trust administration procedures, established prudent fiduciary rules, judicial precedent favorable to trust administration, the right to deny any class of pretermitted heirs (those born or adopted after the establishment of the trust) unless otherwise expressly stated, and the doctrine of multi-jurisdictional trust administration when needed.

Enhanced Asset Protection Laws. Nevada incorporates maximum applications toward spendthrift trust law, providing full creditor protection for assets held in a Nevada-sitused trust. Nevada also recognizes self-settled asset protection trusts — the Nevada Asset Protection Trust (NAPT) — allowing a grantor to be deemed a permitted beneficiary while protecting the trust corpus from civil creditor claims, with additional protection from Nevada's no-statutorily-exempt-creditor laws.

User-Friendly Investment Standards. Nevada has enacted standardized trust investment laws. Chapter 163 provides that a trust's entire investment portfolio is considered when determining the prudence of an individual investment; that a client-appointed TIA cannot be held liable for individual investment losses (provided investments at the time of acquisition are reasonably consistent with overall portfolio objectives); and that diversification is a recognized investment protocol where no category or type of investment is deemed inherently imprudent.

Designating Nevada as the situs for a trust created by a grantor who is not a citizen of Nevada can be accomplished by decree in the trust instrument. The Restatement (Second) of Conflicts of Laws § 268-270 (1971) states that courts are to uphold a grantor's selection of jurisdiction to govern a trust as long as the trust is valid under the law of the state selected — even if the laws of the grantor's domicile may not recognize the trust as enforceable.

Nevada's version of the Uniform Trust Code provides that the statutory laws of the state, when selected by the transferor/grantor in the governing trust instrument, control the meaning and legal effect of the trust as long as the grantor's application of that law is not contrary to Nevada public policy.

Under NRS Chapter 164.045, Nevada allows anyone — regardless of state of residency now or upon decease — to establish a Nevada-sitused trust. Unless otherwise opted by the client, the Dynamic Trust Portfolio trust documents default-select Nevada law in order to use the pro-trust administration laws provided under Nevada jurisdiction.

According to the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) — enacted by Congress and specifically referred to as The Consumer Consent Provision in CFR §101(c)(1)(C)(ii) — the effect of an electronic signature will be legally sufficient to acknowledge, authenticate, and validate digital documents. Nevada law recognizes electronic signatures under NRS Title 59, Chapter 719.

The primary reasons for enacting institutional ESIGN law were to facilitate e-commerce efficiency with its transactional speed, ease of implementation, simplistic confirmation, and electronic-record archiving.

The eStatePlan platform features proprietary ESIGN technology that enables electronic signatures for estate planning documents under Nevada law and asset-transfer-to-trust Schedules/Ledgers, allowing client/users to utilize the speed and convenience of electronically funding their Dynamic Trust Portfolios.

The dynamics of The eStatePlan™ processing platform are made possible through bundled software applications that auto-merge both field and custom text entries unto software-selected document templates. The templated documents can be further tailored with data-entry-driven replacement/removal code — and IT IS FAST.

The data entries for eStatePlan creation are made ONLINE as a turn-key, client-controlled (yet office-assisted) system complete with ESIGN applications to implement the Dynamic Trust Portfolio document set and electronic Funding Kit. The bundled platform applications empower the client/user within a secure environment to generate a personalized, fully-funded, and properly implemented Revocable Living Trust estate plan in about an hour.

The eStatePlan system also provides comprehensive Custom Trust Directives that can be imported by the user — and/or the assisting attorney-of-record — through the ONLINE Data Entry page. The result is a customized Revocable Living Trust estate planning document set generated when the Data Entry page is submitted, which can be modified within the Client Console.

The Client Console also features a Share Console functionality where the user can share any selected portion of the data — including to legal counsel — through an ancillary, password-protected code. This allows the user's attorney to review the user's data and trust draft, and make changes as deemed necessary.

The system equips client/purchasers to not only electronically create but also to modify (24/7) their personalized estate planning packages in a secure, user-friendly environment if the user opts for and maintains the My LifeCard Plan (MLCP) Membership Subscription beyond the 90-day provisional term.

The eStatePlan platform also provides a Try Before You Buy (TBYB) user experience enabling a client/prospect to generate his estate plan with no obligation through a system-generated, last-name demo badge with watermarked PDF documents.

The TBYB feature not only allows a potential user to experience the navigation and user-friendly dynamics of the Client Console, but also provides an opt-in purchase page within the Console when the decision is subsequently made to buy.

Full 90-day access to the Client Console is initially provided for all patrons through eStatePlan's FREE My LifeCard Plan Provisional Membership, always included with the purchase. The Console features powerful dynamics that enable users to modify (24/7) their Dynamic Trust Portfolio documents, Funding Kit ledgers, Advanced Medical Directives, PostScript Page, and E-Vault Center portals.

Membership access beyond the FREE 90-day Provisional term requires a one-year renewable subscription, payable with the user's choice of monthly or annual recurring billing.

Subscriber benefits include: Document Modification Functionality to update the Dynamic Trust Portfolio as family conditions change; Electronic Trust-Funding Applications via modifiable Assignment Ledgers; a NotePad Center for permanent, recorded communication with service parties; Advanced Medical Directives (AMD) completable and signable online; Emergency Online Medical Access via the Physician Login Page using only the Membership Card ID; Share Console access for outside legal counsel and tax advisors; a Postscript Page for personal directives and password records under the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA); and an E-Vault Center for secure digital storage.

The eStatePlan system provides electronic signature applications in compliance with ESIGN and Nevada law under NRS Title 59, Chapter 719. Among other features, ESIGN technology records an Electronic Effective Date (EED) for the living trust and all ancillary trust-portfolio documents.

The EED application enables user/grantors to electronically modify their own document sets at any time and as many times as desired — without having to use amendments or restatements of trust. The integration of proprietary ESIGN & EED technology with eStatePlan's no-limit-to-modifications service platform enables users to confidently address the otherwise difficult duties associated with personal estate plan maintenance.

The ESIGN design also allows users to remove the recorded ESIGN date if ever necessary, enabling the user/grantor to simply start over and recreate a new effective date for the RLT.

The eStatePlan's electronic signature technology also enhances the user's trust funding experience with the platform's Funding Kit. The Funding Kit serves an important segment since proper funding — an often incomplete but quite necessary implementation activity — is essential to realize a fully completed plan.

The eStatePlan's cloud-based funding process has revolutionized the way living trusts can be funded through the speed, efficiency, and convenience of electronically implemented asset-transfer ledgers, which circumvents the otherwise time-consuming and neglected asset-retitlement-to-trustee process.

The Funding Kit's ESIGN system helps facilitate the user in redirecting beneficiary designations of an IRA, life insurance policies, and other POD-type accounts. The bundling of Funding Kit applications with ESIGN technology enables eStatePlan end users to generate a properly implemented, fully funded, and effective-date-established living trust estate plan in about 90 minutes. The Funding Kit is easy to use for recording data on a multi-page HTML Asset-Transfer Ledger where additions and deletions are made by keystroke entries.

With The eStatePlan process, a corporate trustee's time-consuming and often difficult process of gathering and retrieving client information relative to the client's estate plan is a thing of the past. All such information is stored in the eStatePlan cloud and available for easy access to the corporate trustee through the Trustee/Executor Login portal.

To facilitate the duties of performing trust administrative services — including future estate settlement activities — the selected corporate trustee will have seamless, cloud-based access to ALL of the client's documents (view/print only), implementation dates, and other trust asset information, regardless of how many times it has been changed and updated by the client. Only the view/print component is available to the Trustee/Executor inside the Client Console.

The eStatePlan platform supports and facilitates inter-connectivity between all the parties: the client/grantor; the Client Management Services (CMS) office; the client's investment advisor of record; the client's attorney of record; and the client's appointed successor (corporate) trustee.

The NotePad Message Center makes it easy for the parties to communicate with one another directly through the processing platform. And, as with all other client-based information, the communication records are permanently stored in the eStatePlan cloud-based server and back-up files.