31st Annual Spring Institute
Amarillo Area Estate Planning Council's Thirty-First Annual Spring Institute
Wednesday May 10th, 2023
Amarillo Club 31st Floor
600 S. Tyler St. Amarillo, Tx
Please join us for our 31st Annual Spring Institute for a day of engaging speakers and meeting your fellow AAEPC members. This year we are splitting this event up into two full days, a Spring Institute and a Fall Institute, so be on the lookout for the second half later this year.
7:30 am – Registration and light breakfast
8:00 am to 11:40 am – Morning session
11:40 am to 12:20 pm – Lunch
12:20 pm to 5:00 pm – Afternoon session
Speakers:
Garrett Couts practices primarily in estate planning, probate, real estate, energy, business formations and transactions, and agricultural law. While at Texas Tech University, Garrett studied Agricultural Communications with minors in Agribusiness and Political Science. Garrett graduated as the top student in his degree program and with magna cum laude honors. After law school Garrett became an attorney with McCleskey, Harriger, Brazill & Graf, where he practiced extensively in probate and estates, energy law, real estate, agricultural issues, commercial and personal litigation, and various other areas. Garrett then joined the Brady & Hamilton team in 2019.
Todd Healy, C3 Financial Partners Founder, assists high net-worth individuals and closely held business owners and their advisors facilitate smoother transitions in their estate, philanthropic, and business planning endeavors. Todd empowers his clients to move planning processes forward with clarity, confidence, and coordination. He has served on the advisory councils of Voya, Pacific Life, and John Hancock. .
Melanie Smoot was the Development Director for a non-profit in Frisco, Texas prior to joining Amarillo Area Foundation in 2021. She began her career in the non-profit field 19 years ago in Amarillo and has raised funds for various non-profit organizations throughout the state of Texas since then. Melanie grew up in the Texas Panhandle and graduated from West Texas A&M University with her Bachelor of Music and Master of Business Administration degrees.
Katrina Wall-Briggs has a Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation with a post baccalaureate certification in Gerontology. She has participated in numerous trainings through the National Center on Elder Abuse, and has successfully completed the licensing course for the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards Education certification. Katrina is the liaison for financial intuitions, law enforcement, district attorney offices and court officials.
Amanda Polk is a native of Dallas, Texas, and has received her Bachelor of Science degree from Prairie View A&M University. She began her work with Adult Protective Services as a case worker in 2008. As a SME, she reviews and performs advanced consultative services and investigative work in complex cases of financial exploitation and other evidence driven cases to Adult Protective Services staff as well as providing technical assistance, training, written guidelines, and interpretation of policies and procedures to both agency staff and external stakeholders, other governmental agencies, community organizations, and the public.
Leah Hymel graduated from Hardin-Simmons University with an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice and a graduate degree in Counseling and Human Development. Currently, Leah is the Evidence Driven Investigation Supervisor. She was previously, the Team Lead for the APS Northwest District’s Evidence Driven Investigation Team. This team provides consultations on complex evidence driven investigations, including financial exploitation cases. The EDI unit, which is led by Leah, investigates allegations of Financial Exploitation and Abuse when the victim is an adult 65 or older or a person 18-64 with disabilities.
Adan Aquirre graduated from Sul Ross State University with an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice. In his 30 year career with the State of Texas he has held many investigative roles in multiple programs, including those specializing in Facility Investigations and APS Community Investigations. He has also supervised at the field level and more recently served as a Program Administrator for APS. He is currently serving as the APS Northwest District’s Investigations Subject Matter expert (EDI SME), which was a role he had previously served in for 13 years.
Shaun Rainey is a shareholder in the Estate Planning and Probate Section of Cotton, Bledsoe, Tighe, & Dawson, and is presently serving as Section Head. He is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Shaun’s practice is concentrated on estate and wealth preservation and planning, as well as trust administration, and asset protection. Shaun received his law degree from Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock Texas. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, cum laude, from Rice University in Houston Texas.
Leah M. Davis, a partner at Morgan Williamson LLP, focuses her practice on estate planning (including estate tax planning), probate, post-death trust administration, business succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, and general business and corporate governance matters. Leah received her law degree from Washington & Lee University School of Law in Virginia, where she was a member of the Law Review. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, summa cum laude, from Azusa Pacific University in California. She is licensed to practice law in Texas and Kansas.
Courses:
Garrett Couts - The ‘Other’ Estate Documents – What They Are & Why You Need Them & Estate-Property Conveyances: A presentation based primarily upon Texas law covering Estate Planning documents and tools available under Texas law (Wills; Powers of Attorney; HIPAA; Directives to Physicians; Do-Not-Resuscitates; Guardian Designations; Disposition of Remains; Mental Health Declarations; Pet Trusts; Anatomical Gifts; Authorization Agreement for Voluntary Adult Caregiver; Trusts - 1301 & 142) and Estates and Probates generally (Types of Probate - Dependent Admin.& Independent Admin.), and Estate-Conveyance instruments and practices (Estate Conveyances - Tips, Tricks, and “Heads Up!”). Additionally, the presentation will cover some estate considerations for agricultural-related estates, assets, and operations (USDA/FSA considerations in estates).
Todd Healy – Why should you care about what’s going on in the Life Insurance industry: Life insurance is often one of the largest unmanaged and least understood assets in our clients’ portfolios. We will explore why that is the case. In addition, we will talk about changes that have taken place in the life insurance industry and how those changes may be affecting you and/or your clients.
Leah Davis – Trust Alphabet Soup: When embarking on a journey into the world of trusts and estates, one can become quickly and easily inundated with the sheer multitude of acronyms and terms commonly used by estate planners. Estate planning is a practice area full of ILITs, QTIPs, and QPRTs, GRATs, CLATs and CRATs, and so on. But what, exactly, do they all stand for? In this seminar you learn about some of the most commonly-employed acronyms and other short-hand references routinely encountered in estate planning—including what they mean and what the underlying instrument, entity, tax form, or professional designation is that is being referenced, how it works, and how or why it might be utilized in estate planning.
Melanie Smoot – A Growing Trend in Community Foundations: Participants will learn about a growing trend with community foundations involving donor designated and field of interest funds. Amarillo Area Foundation (AAF) has recently introduced Stratum Funds. These field of interest funds allow donors to choose areas of focus that align with their philanthropic goals. These community and donor-driven funds will not only assist donors in identifying areas they want to support with their philanthropic dollars, but also allow AAF to be impactfully responsive to community needs beyond the traditional grantmaking process.
Katrina Wall-Briggs, Amanda Polk, Leah Hymel, and Adan Aquirre – Adult Protective Services & Financial Exploitation: Participants will learn the forms of financial exploitation and several different common scams. The presentation explores the characteristics of seniors that make them targets of financial abuse and will go over the unique hardships that are undergone with this type of exploitation. It will also explain some of the warning signs of potential exploitation and how to help older adults and persons with disabilities if you feel they are being abused, neglected, or exploited.
Shaun Rainey - Estate Planning in Oil & Gas: The purpose of this program is to provide a roadmap, advice, and assist clients with estate planning for mineral interests and how to advise a personal representative handling these assets during the administration of an estate. It will provide some basic principles of the ownership of mineral interests and classification of property. It will discuss estate planning techniques commonly recommended and the management of mineral interests in the administration of an estate. It will outline proper conveyancing and perfecting title on transfer and some ethical considerations for handling oil and gas interest in estate planning and probate for first, fiftieth, or five hundredth time.
All Institute documents, including presenations, will be uploaded HERE as they become available.
Fees:
Members - $250
Non-Member - $300
CE has been approved for CFP, TX MCLE, Life Insurance, and CPE. ABA has been approved for 7.25 hours for CTFA and 2.5 hours for CRSP.
Questions, please contact Sheena Martinez at 757-714-4276 or aaepc1@gmail.com
Please Note: We will not be able to provide refunds for cancellations after May 3rd or for no-shows.
