Red Alert!!! The Corporate Transparency Act is Coming and Every Estate Planner Needs to Know About It
The Corporate Transparency Act takes effect in less than 5 months, on January 1, 2024. Despite its name, it will have a very practical impact on a significant portion of our estate planning clients. They will be required to timely file Reports of Beneficial Ownership Information with FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, an agency of the U.S. government) and keep those Reports up to date or face large monetary penalties. Although the CTA was passed over 2 1/2 years ago, most client advisers don’t know anything about it and few clients are aware that it even exists. We will discuss this trap for the unwary and my current thoughts for dealing with it.
Randy Nelson is a Shareholder at von Briesen & Roper, s.c., focusing his practice on estate planning, advising family businesses, tax planning, trust administration and probate. He is a Certified Public Accountant and was an Adjunct Professor at Marquette University Law School where he taught estate planning for over 30 years. He is a frequent speaker at continuing education courses for lawyers and CPAs on the subjects of estate planning and tax planning. He is the author of the chapter “Estate Planning for Owners of Closely Held Businesses” in Eckhardt’s Workbook for Wisconsin Estate Planners published by the State Bar of Wisconsin.
Randy is currently the chair of the State Bar of Wisconsin (SBW) Drafting Committee which is working on the Wisconsin Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act, a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin/Wisconsin Bankers Association (SBW/WBA) Drafting Committee working on the trailer bill to modify the Wisconsin Trust Code, and a member of the SBW Drafting Committee which is working on the Wisconsin Uniform Power of Appointment Act. He chaired the SBW/WBA Drafting Committee responsible for the Wisconsin Uniform Principal and Income Act which was passed in 2005 and was a member of the SBW/WBA Drafting Committee responsible for the Wisconsin Trust Code which was passed in 2013.
