Continuing Education
MO Bar CLE - 2.4 hours
Program ID: 694041
CFP Board - 2.0 hours
Program ID: 301560
The Fundamentals of Estate Planning and Probate
In this interactive session Melinda (Mindy) Ward, an experienced estate planning and transactional attorney with Spencer Fane LLP, will give professional advisors a thorough overview of the estate planning process, outlining the alternatives available for achieving clients' goals. She will also discuss the probate process and the strategies used by attorneys to avoid it.
In this presentation you will learn:
(1) Participants will learn about the most common estate planning issues and the strategies available to attorneys to address them to achieve their clients' goals.
(2) Participants will receive an overview of the probate process, where case study examples will show the costs and uncertainties involved.
(3) Participants will learn about the unique issues IRAs present in the estate planning process and attorneys' alternative strategies to address them.
Melinda (Mindy) M. Ward
Partner with Spencer Fane
Mindy Ward provides clients with efficient service and expertise in complex estate, business, and gift and tax planning issues. She is well-versed in handling wills and trusts, family limited partnerships, limited liability companies, S corporations, irrevocable trusts, charitable trusts, and other sophisticated estate and business planning devices. In addition, Mindy advises clients on all types of fiduciary controversies, administers estates and trusts, and prepares federal and state individual, estate, gift, corporate, and generation-skipping tax returns and fiduciary income tax returns for estates and trusts.
A member of the Kansas City Estate Planning Society and the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association (Taxation and Probate Committees), Mindy is admitted to the Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado bars. She was the first recipient of the Estate Planning Society Award and is a past co-chair of the Greater Kansas City Leave a Legacy. She has been a featured speaker at numerous seminars on estate planning,probate, and ethics.