CFP Certification Courses, Northwestern University School of Professional Studies - Northwestern School of Professional Studies

Program Courses

PDP courses are offered online, remotely, and on-campus. Please refer to the Schedule Notes for course delivery information.

IMPORTANT: The registration process for all professional development courses requires you to (A) register for your course, (B) complete an acknowledgment of Northwestern University's Student Expectations and COVID-19 Code of Conduct in CAESAR, AND (C) update your emergency contact information . Current students with an active NetID must complete their student acknowledgment in CAESAR before registering for courses. New students must complete their student acknowledgment in CAESAR within 48 hours of enrollment before official registration can be finalized.
Please contact pdp@northwestern.edu for assistance.

FN_EXTND 315-0 : Estate Planning

Description

Planning and managing federal estate and gift taxation is one of the most overlooked yet critical elements of a financial plan. Part of this process involves understanding the perspectives of the many parties involved and their related concerns; that is, the perspectives of descendants, fiduciaries, estates, trust beneficiaries, donors and recipients. This course examines the important estate-planning issues from all of these perspectives. Beginning with the fundamentals of federal estate and gift taxation, the process of developing an estate plan is presented through a discussion of a variety of mechanisms - such as incapacity planning, qualified interest trusts, generation skipping, estate planning weaknesses, property ownership forms, intestacy and will substitutes, how to satisfy liquidity needs, and specific exclusion and valuation techniques that reduce the size of the gross estate. There are many facets to proper estate planning, and this course will touch on all of the essential elements necessary for consideration by the financial planner. Charitable, intrafamilial, postmortem and business-transfer planning techniques that play an important part in estate planning are addressed, and additional focus is placed on the implications of gifts and bequests, including lifetime gifting and coordination of the unified credit with marital deduction. Other issues include tax consequences of estate planning techniques, revocable and irrevocable trusts (including bypass and marital deduction trusts), life insurance, federal estate tax, probate and more. This course is offered during the fall and spring terms.

Registered students can access their online course site here. An activated NetID and password is required for login. *Please note: It may take up to 24-hours for registered students to be added to the online course platform.