The Tools & Techniques of Income Tax Planning, 7th Edition

Robert S. Keebler, CPA/PFS, MST, AEP (Distin­guished), CGMA is a partner with Keebler & Associ­ates, LLP and is a 2007 recipient of the prestigious Accredited Estate Planners (Distinguished) award from the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. He has been named by CPA Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the United States and one of the Top 40 Tax Advisors to Know During a Recession. Mr. Keebler is the past Editor-in-Chief of CCH’s magazine, Journal of Retire­ment Planning, and a member of CCH’s Financial and Estate Planning Advisory Board. His practice includes family wealth transfer and preservation planning, charitable giving, retirement distribution planning, and estate administration. Mr. Keebler frequently represents clients before the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the private letter ruling process and in estate, gift and income tax examinations and appeals.

In the past 20 years, he has received over 150 favorable private letter rulings including several key rulings of “first impression.” Mr. Keebler is nationally recognized as an expert in estate and retirement plan­ning and works collaboratively with other experts on academic reviews and papers, and client matters. Mr. Keebler is the author of over 75 articles and columns and editor, author, or co-author of many books and treatises on wealth transfer and taxation, including the Warren, Gorham & Lamont of RIA treatise Esperti, Peterson and Keebler/Irrevocable Trusts: Analysis with Forms.

Mr. Keebler is a member of the editorial board of the Society of Financial Service Professionals “Keeping Current” series. He is a featured columnist for CCH’s Taxes Magazine – “Family Tax Planning Forum,” Steve Leimberg’s “News of the Week Newsletter” and the Bureau of National Affairs Tax Division. Bob is also a contributing author to the American Bar Association’s The ABA Practical Guide to Estate Planning. He also had his article “Is That Your ‘Final’ Answer?” published in Tax Management Compensation Planning Journal. Bob frequently is quoted in national publications such as New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Barrons, Bloomberg Wealth Manager, Financial Advisor, Forbes, Kiplinger, Lawyer’s Weekly, On Wall Street, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Wealth Manager, and Worth in addi­tion to many local and regional newspapers.

He is a frequent speaker for legal, accounting, insur­ance and financial planning groups throughout the United States at seminars and conferences on advanced IRA distribution strategies, estate planning and trust administration topics including the AICPA’s Advanced Estate Planning, Personal Financial Planning Confer­ence and Tax Strategies for the High Income Individual Conference.

Mr. Keebler graduated (cum laude) from Lakeland College with a degree in Accountancy and the Univer­sity of Wisconsin - Milwaukee with a Masters in Taxa­tion. Before practicing in Northeastern Wisconsin, he practiced with Price Waterhouse where he concentrated in taxation.

Stephan R. Leimberg is CEO of Leimberg and LeClair, Inc., an estate and financial planning software company, CEO of LISI, Leimberg Information Services, Inc., an email newsletter service, and President of Leimberg Associates, Inc., a publishing and software company. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Masters of Taxation Program of Villanova University School of Law and former adjunct at Temple University School of Law. He holds a B.A. from Temple University, and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law. Leimberg is the Editor of the American Society of Financial Service Professionals audio publication, Keeping Current.

Leimberg is the author or co-author of numerous books on estate, financial, and employee benefit and retirement planning and a nationally known speaker. Leimberg is the creator and principal author of the entire nine book Tools & Techniques series including The Tools & Techniques of Estate Planning, The Tools & Techniques of Financial Planning, The Tools & Techniques of Employee Benefit and Retirement Planning, The Tools & Techniques of Life Insurance Planning, The Tools & Techniques of Charitable Planning, The Tools & Techniques of Investment Planning, The Tools & Techniques of Risk Management, The Tools & Techniques of Practice Management, and The Tools & Techniques of Retirement Income Planning. Leimberg is co-author of Tax Planning with Life Insurance with noted attorney Howard Zaritsky, The Book of Trusts with attorneys Charles K. Plotnick and Daniel Evans, and How to Settle an Estate with Charles K. Plotnick. He was also a contributing author of the American Bar Association’s The Lawyer’s Guide to Retirement.

Leimberg is co-creator of many software packages for the financial services professional including Estate and Financial Planning NumberCruncher (estate planning), DeCoupleCruncher (estate planning), Financial Analyzer II (financial calculations), Estate Planning Quickview (Estate Planning Flow Charts), Life Settlement NumberCruncher (life settlement buy-hold analysis), Planning Ahead for a Secure Retirement (PowerPoint Client Seminar) and Toward a Zero Estate Tax (PowerPoint Client Estate Planning Seminar).

A nationally known speaker, Professor Leimberg has addressed the Miami Tax Institute, the NYU Tax Institute, the Federal Tax Bar, the Notre Dame Law School and Duke University Law School’s Estate Planning Conference, the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils, the AICPA’s National Estate Planning Forum, the ABA Section on Taxation, and The Annual Meeting of the American Society of Financial Service Professionals. Leimberg has also spoken to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Leimberg was awarded the Excellence in Writing Award of the American Bar Association’s Probate and Property Section. He has been honored as Estate Planner of the Year by the Montgomery County Estate Planning Council and as Distinguished Estate Planner by the Philadelphia Estate Planning Council. He is also a recipient of the President’s Cup of the Philadelphia Life Underwriters, a two time Boris Todorovitch Lecturer, and the First Ben Feldman Lecturer.

Leimberg was named Edward N. Polisher Lecturer of the Dickinson School of Law and 2004 recipient of the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils Distinguished Accredited Estate Planner award.

Leimberg’s LISI email newsletter/data base at www.leimbergservices.com is used daily by thousands of estate, financial, employee benefit, charitable, and retirement planning practitioners.

Jay Katz is the executive editor of the 5th Edition of The Tools & Techniques of Income Tax Planning as well as the author of several new chapters. He is also a tax attorney concentrating on litigating tax cases, handling examination audits and collection matters, as well as submitting offers in compromise for corporate and individual clients. Jay has the distinction of earning two LLMs in taxation from the NYU and University of Florida graduate tax programs. During twelve years as a professor at Widener University Law School and Beasley School of Law at Temple University, Jay has taught virtually every tax and estate planning course on the curriculum and was the director of the Widener tax clinic.

Also a prolific author, Jay is a contributing editor and member of the Tax Facts Advisory Board at the National Underwriter Company, a co-author of the 17th Edition of The Tools & Techniques of Estate Planning, as well as a freelance editor for the CPA Journal. Additional writing credentials include seven published law review tax articles, including “An Offer in Compromise You Can’t Confuse: It is not the Opening Bid of a Delinquent Taxpayer to Play Let’s Make a Tax Deal with the Internal Revenue Service,” 81 Miss. L. J. 1673 (2012) (lead article); “The William O. Douglas Tax Factor: Where Did the Spin Stop and Who Was He Looking Out For?” 3 Charlotte Law Review 133 (2012) (lead article); and “The Untold Story of Crane v. Commissioner Reveals an Inconvenient Tax Truth: Useless Depreciation Deductions Cause Global Basis Erosion to Bait A Hazardous Tax Trap For Unwitting Taxpayers,” 30 Va. Tax Rev. 559 (2011).

John J. “Jeff” Scroggin has been married for 37 years to Lynn Geiger Scroggin and has three children. His oldest son is a professional blacksmith, his daughter works as a charitable event planner & fundraiser and his youngest son is an Iraq war veteran. Jeff has practiced as a CPA and then as a business, tax and estate planning attorney for over 40 years. He is co-creator of the “Family Incentive Trust” and creator of the “The Family Love Letter” which has had over a million copies printed. Jeff practices out of an 1883 house in the historic district of Roswell, Georgia. The building contains one of the largest collections of tax memorabilia in the US. The tax collection was featured in a front page article in the Wall Street Journal on April 15, 2015.

Jeff served as a Member of the University of Florida Levin College of Law Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2016. Jeff received the following degrees from the Uni­versity of Florida: B.S.B.A. (Accounting), 1974; Juris Doctorate, 1977; Master of Laws in Taxation (LL.M.), 1979. Jeff has taught tax law at the University of Florida College of Law and College of Business. Jeff is a Found­ing Board member of the University of Florida College of Law Tax Institute and a Founding member of the Uni­versity of Florida Advisor Network. He was a CPA with Arthur Andersen’s nationwide estate planning group. He is a Nationally Accredited Estate Planner (NAEPC), is rated “AV” by Martindale Hubbell (since 1990) and has been named as a Georgia “Super-Lawyer” for every year since 2009. Jeff was Founding Editor-in-Chief of the NAEPC Journal of Estate and Tax Planning (2006-2010) and was Co-Editor of Commerce Clearing House’s Journal of Practical Estate Planning (2004-2006). Jeff was Chairman of the North Fulton Community Foundation (2007-2009) and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils (2002-2010). He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Historic Roswell Convention and Visitors Bureau (2004-2015). He served as Founding Chairman of the Friends of Barrington Hall (2008-2012) and was President of the North Georgia Estate Planning Council (2002-2005).

Jeff is the author of over 250 published articles and columns. Among the publications are: Estate Planning, Taxes, Financial and Estate Planning, Practical Tax Strate­gies, Leimberg Information Services, NAEPC Journal of Estate and Tax Planning, ABA Property and Probate, ABA Practical Tax Lawyer, ABA Practical Lawyer, AICPA Tax Advisor, Journal of Estates and Trusts, Trusts and Estates, Zaristky’s Estate Planning Alert, Journal of Financial Ser­vices Professionals, Journal of Financial Planning, Financial Services Professionals Newsletter, CCH Journal of Practical Estate Planning, Advisor Today, RIA Tax Watch, Financial Planning, the Atlanta Bar Journal and the Georgia Bar Jour­nal. He was an Estate Planning Columnist for Advisor Today Magazine (1997-2010).

Jeff is a frequent speaker on business, tax and estate planning issues. Among the groups he has spoken for are: The University of Florida College of Law Graduate Tax Program (2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015), the Florida Tax Institute (2014, 2015, 2016), the Million Dollar Roundtable, the State Bar of Georgia (1992, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2013), The National Convention of the Financial Planning Association (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2016), the Financial Planning Association Annual Retreat(2000, 2002, 2014, 2015), the Atlanta Bar Association (2005, 2013), Georgia Society of CPAs Annual Estate Planning Conference (2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016), the Annual Convention of the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils (1995, 2016), the Georgia Federal Tax Conference (2012, 2013, 2014), the Columbus Ohio Community Foundation, the Dallas Foundation, The International Forum (2009, 2010), and the Annual Convention of National Beer Wholesalers Association (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009).

Jeff has been extensively quoted in a number of media sources, including: the Wall Street Journal (1999, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, March 2010, August 2010, April 2015), CNN Headline News (on the Terri Schavio case), The New York Times (2005, 2013, 2014), USA Today, Atlanta Journal/Constitution(1999, 2002, 2005, 2010), National Public Radio Marketplace Radio, National Public Radio Talk of the Town, Forbes Maga­zine (1999, 2001, 2012, 2014), Fortune Magazine (1998, 2000, 2001), Bloomberg Wealth Management, New York Times International Herald Tribune, Money Magazine, Smart Money Magazine, South China Post, The LA Times, BNA Estates Gifts & Trusts Journal, Newsday, Chicago Sun-Times, Miami Herald, and MSN (2010, 2013, 2015).

Michael S. Jackson, CPA/PFS, M.T., is a Tax Partner with Grant Thornton and leads the Philadelphia Private Wealth Services Practice. He has over twenty years of experience providing a wide range of tax compliance and consulting, financial planning and wealth trans­fer strategies for closely held businesses, private and publicly held company executives and affluent fami­lies. He began his career with Ernst & Young, LLP in their Entrepreneurial Services Group, specializing in S corporation, partnership, and individual tax consulting and compliance. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Mike was a partner at SMART and Associates, LLP and held a senior management position in their tax and financial planning division.

Mike is a frequent lecturer of tax and financial plan­ning topics for various organizations, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Lehigh University, Institute for International Research, and the Skybridge Alternative Conference. In addition to The Tools & Techniques of Income Tax Planning he is a co-author of The Tools & Techniques of Financial Plan­ning, which is widely used as educational and editorial resource material by the financial planning profession. In addition, Mike has authored articles for Bloomberg/BNA’s Tax Management Memorandum and Estates, Gifts and Trusts Journal, and is regularly interviewed by national, regional, and local news organizations.

Mike is a Certified Public Accountant in Pennsylva­nia and a member of the American Institute of Certi­fied Public Accountants and Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants. In 1998, he received his certification as a Personal Financial Specialist by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He holds a Masters in Taxation from Villanova University School of Law and graduated magna cum laude from Drexel University with a Bachelor of Science in Busi­ness Administration, with majors in accounting and finance.