Trusts & Estates Law Section 2025 Spring Meeting

Accommodations

Charleston Place

205 Meeting St, Charleston, SC 29401

Book your hotel room today! Or directly contact the Reservation Office by calling 800.611.5545 or via e-mail at reservations@charlestonplace.com 

Room Block Closes March 31, 2025.

Please note the Hotel is currently sold out for May 1st.  Other suggested nearby hotels are below:

Emeline ( 4 min walk)

Mills House (5 min walk)

French Quarter Inn (4 minute walk)

The Loutrel ( 6 minute walk)

The Mills House, Curio Collection by Hilton (5 minute walk)

Planters Inn (across the street)

Hampton Inn Historic District (15 min walk)

** If you intend to cancel your hotel room reservation, please let the section liaison, Kate Tortora ktortora@nysba.org know.**

Overall Meeting Agenda

Thursday, May 1st

12:00 p.m.- 5:00 p.m.- Registration- Second Floor West

3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.- New Attendee and Surrogates Reception (Invitation Only) at DOYLE, 123 King Street Charleston, SC

4:00 p.m.- 5:15 p.m. – DOYLE Reception- Open to all attendees- DOYLE 123 King Street Charleston, SC- if you would like to attend, please RSVP to ktortora@nysba.org 

5:30 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.- Welcome Reception (On site)-Market Street Circle

Friday, May 2nd

7:00 a.m.- 1:00 p.m. – Registration-Willow Foyer

7:00 a.m.- 9:00 a.m.- Breakfast-Magnolia Willow Foyer

8:00 a.m.- 9:00 a.m. – Breakfast with the Surrogates (Additional Fee to Attend)-Magnolia  Room

9:00 a.m. – 12:35 p.m.- General CLE Session-Magnolia Willow

12:35-6:00 p.m.- Afternoon on Own – If you are interested in a walking tour or other nearby activities, please connect with:

For walking tours:

1670 Tours

https://www.1670tours.com/

Email: david@1670tours.com

Phone: (843) 270-0929

For all other activities:

Please contact: concierge@charlestonplace.com

6:00 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.- Offsite Reception and Dinner at Thomas Bennet House 69 Barre St, Charleston, SC 29401 ( Transportation to and from the hotel will be provided- first transport will leave at 5:30 from the hotel lobby)

Saturday, May 3rd

7:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. – Registration-Willow Foyer

7:00 a.m.- 9:00 a.m.- Breakfast-Magnolia Willow Foyer

8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.- Committee Breakfast Meetings-Magnolia Willow or Colleton

9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.- General CLE Session-Magnolia Willow

2:00 p.m.- 5:30 p.m.-  Optional Fort Sumter Tour- If you would like to attend please RSVPS no later than April 18th to Kate Tortora, ktortora@nysba.org -section member, James Kaplan will be coordinating all final details.

This tour will visit Fort Sumter, where the Civil Ward began and ended.  Join us for a special tour lead by Section Member James Kaplan, who is an inveterate history buff and Chairman of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association.  After a boat ride across Charleston Harbor, the tour will show the historical site and discuss whether President Lincoln’s courageous defense of Fort Sumter in 1861 caused the bloodiest war in American history.  Tour cost includes round-trip transportation to Patriots Point and the ferry to Fort Sumter. 

6:00 p.m.- 7:30 p.m.- Kentucky Derby Themed Cocktail Reception (On site)- Riviera Ballroom

CLE Agenda

_{Bad Blood and Champagne Problems: Cutting Edge Challenges in Trusts & Estates}

Friday, May 2

8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.    Registration

8:00 a.m. – 8:50 a.m.    Optional Session

Guilty as Sin?: Breakfast with the Surrogates

Please note there is an additional fee to attend this session.

You must pre-register. The session offers 1.0 MCLE credit.

Panelists:

Hon. Stephen W. Cass

Chautauqua County Surrogate’s Court, Mayville, NY

Hon. Peter J. Kelly

Queens County Surrogate’s Court, Jamaica, NY

Hon. Brandon R. Sall

Westchester County Surrogate’s Court, White Plains, NY

Hon. Margaret C. Reilly

Nassau County Surrogate's Court, Mineola, NY

Moderator:

Eva-Marie Cusack, Supervising Court Attorney-Referee

Richmond County Surrogate’s Court, Staten Island, NY

1.0 Credit in Areas of Professional Practice

9:05 a.m. – 9:10 a.m.    Program Introduction

Trusts and Estates Law Section Welcome

Angelo M. Grasso Esq., Section Chair

Greenfield Stein & Senior LLP, New York, NY

Brian P. Corrigan, Esq., Program Co-Chair

Farrell Fritz, P.C. Uniondale, NY

Amy F. Altman, Esq., Program Co-Chair

Greenfield Stein & Senior LLP, New York, NY

9:10 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.    Ready for It? The Promise, Challenges, and Reality of Electronic Wills

The practice of law continues to be transformed by technology, and it is no surprise that there is now a legislative proposal to permit electronic wills in New York. The proposal deviates significantly from New York’s longstanding substantive law concerning will executions and creates ambiguities that will most certainly lead to litigation and require judicial intervention. Several states have enacted electronic will legislation, some modeled on the Uniform Electronic Wills Act, and others substantially similar to the Uniform Act. This segment will explore New York’s legislative proposal and the challenges the legislation presents to our longstanding doctrinal rules concerning paper will executions. It will also highlight the national trends concerning electronic wills to help us be better prepared as we move forward in this digital age.

Panelists:

Nicole L. Clouthier, Esq.

Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, Albany, NY

Hon. Deborah S. Kearns

Albany County Surrogate's Court, Albany, NY

1.0 Credit in Areas of Professional Practice

10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.    Electric Touch: Artificial Intelligence and Other Technology in the Practice of Trust and Estate Law

Over the past few years, we have experienced significant technological breakthroughs that are revolutionizing the way trust and estate attorneys practice law.   Those new technologies include artificial intelligence, machine learning, e-discovery, and other technology.  This program will review the use, or potential use, of these technologies in practices covering trust and estate planning, administration, and litigation.  We will review how these technologies work, how they can potentially make one’s practice more efficient, and the risks and ethical considerations associated with the use of such technology.

Speaker:

Timothy M. Ferges, Esq.

McCarter & English LLP, New York, NY

1.0 Credit in Law Practice Management

10:50 a.m. – 11:10 a.m.    Coffee Break with Exhibitors

11:10 a.m. – 12:35 p.m.    Welcome to New York: Panel discussion on the challenges of multi-state fiduciary litigation

Trust and estate litigators often face challenges involving multiple jurisdictions when addressing disputes arising after death, because people frequently reside in multiple states during their lives. This panel discussion will provide insights and practical advice for determining the most favorable jurisdictions, strategies for positioning a case in the preferred jurisdiction, and how to balance other competing interests. Our experienced panelists will focus on the common trifecta jurisdictional overlap of New York, New Jersey, and Florida.

Panelists:

Edward D. Baker, Esq.

Farrell Fritz, P.C., Uniondale, NY

 Amy B. Beller, Esq.

 Beller Smith, Boca Raton, FL

 Andrew Egan, Esq.

 Bressler Amery & Ross PC Florham Park, NJ

1.5 Credits in Areas of Professional Practice

Saturday, May 3

8:00 a.m.    Registration

9:00 a.m. – 9:10 a.m.    Program Introductions

9:10 a.m. – 10:35 a.m.    This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Panel discussion on the challenges of multi-state planning and handling digital assets for clients

Our segment will be an interstate planning panel discussion illustrating the similarities and differences in New York and Florida law as it relates to estate planning and estate and trust administration as well as the challenges of multi-state planning.  Our panel will touch on a variety of topics including planning and administering digital assets, federal and state estate tax rules, generational planning, and disinheritance and elective share guidelines.   

Panelists:

Stephanie M. Alberts, Esq.

Forchelli Deegan Terrana LLP, Uniondale, NY

Tanya Shunnara, Esq.

Dentons Sirote, PC, Birmingham, AL

Shaina Kamen, Esq.

Holland & Knight LLP, New York, NY

1.5    Credits in Areas of Professional Practice

10:35 a.m. – 10:55 a.m.    Coffee Break with Exhibitors

10:55 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.    I Don’t Wanna Live Forever: Digital Resurrection

The digital right to be dead has yet to be recognized as an important legal right. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and nanotechnology have progressed to the point that personal data can be used to resurrect the deceased in digital form with appearance, voice, emotion, and memory recreated to allow interaction with a digital app, chat bot, or avatar that may be indistinguishable from that with a living person. Users may now have a completely immersive experience simply by loading the personal data of the deceased into a neural network to create a chatbot that inherits features and idiosyncrasies of the deceased and dynamically learns with increased communication. There is no legal or regulatory landscape against which to estate plan to protect those who would avoid digital resurrection, and few privacy rights for the deceased. This is an intersection of death, technology, and privacy law that has remained relatively ignored until recently. 

This presentation frames the importance of almost half of a millennium of policy undergirding the law of the deceased, and proposes a paradigm focused upon a right of deletion for the deceased over source material (data), rather than testamentary control over the outcome (digital resurrection), with the suggestion that existing protections are likely sufficient to protect against unauthorized commercial resurrections.

Speaker:

Prof. Victoria J. Haneman

Creighton University School of Law, Assoc. Dean for Research and Innovation, Frank J. Kellegher Prof. of Trusts and Estates

1.0 Credit Cybersecurity, Privacy and Date Protection-Ethics

11:45 a.m. – 12:35 p.m.   Illicit Affairs: 21st Century Ethical Issues

Sadly (but less awkwardly), clandestine meetings and longing stares will not be the focus of this program, which will instead cover a range of emerging ethical issues within the practice of law. Topics will include ethical considerations with respect to remote or hybrid work arrangements, navigating appropriate boundaries with respect to the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence within the law, and the ethical tensions resulting from evolving know-your-client regulatory requirements. Attendees will be cautioned not to keep their eyes down as to these issues, which will undoubtedly impact their practices over the coming years if they have not already.

Speaker:

Julian C. Zebot

Maslon LLP, Minneapolis, MN

1.0 Credit in Ethics and Professionalism

12:35 p.m. – 12:40 p.m.    Adjourn – Closing Remarks

Angelo M. Grasso, Esq., Section Chair

Thank You to our Sponsors!

Gold & Speaker's Dinner Sponsor

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Silver Sponsor

Bronze Sponsors

Exhibitor & Friday General Session Wi-Fi Sponsor

Exhibitor & Friday Breakfast Sponsor 

Friday Reception Sponsor

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