The 2007 Tax & Estate Planning Seminar, held on November 1, 2007, was the most well attended in its 11-year history with more than 270 participants at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, a new venue.  The morning advisors’ program brought together the Bay Area’s top legal, tax and financial professionals to learn with Steve R. Akers, Esq., whose presentation, “New Developments in Advanced Estate Planning Techniques”  was very well received.  The advisors were joined by JCEF donors and Jewish Community Federation leaders at a luncheon honoring Steve Fayne as Professional Advisor of the Year.  The luncheon speaker, Dean and Professor Michael Nacht, brought humor to the serious matter of foreign policy in his presentation, “Foreign Policy Challenges for the Next Administration”.  Please find additional information about the Seminar below.

The Jewish Community Endowment Fund gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the corporate sponsors of its 2007 Annual Tax & Estate Planning Seminar.

AFTERNOON SESSION SPONSOR
Bessemer Trust Company

PRIMARY SPONSORS
Capital Guardian Trust Company-Personal Investment Management
Dodge & Cox
Rothstein Kass
San Francisco Business Times
U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management
Wells Fargo Private Bank

MAJOR SPONSOR
Steefel, Levitt & Weiss

ASSOCIATE SPONSORS
Anonymous
Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management
Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP
Comerica Bank  Wealth & Institutional Management
Cooley Godward Kronish LLP
FMV Opinions, Inc.
Kestrel Investment Management Corporation

Day-of Sponsor
BNY Mellon Wealth Management

Additional contributions from:
ELM Advisors
PIMCO

Morning Advisors’ Program

Steve Akers, Esq., Managing Director Bessemer Trust
Hot Topics in Estate Planning:  The “Latest and Greatest” in Advanced Estate Planning Techniques

• Estate Planning Current Developments and IRS Hot Topics
• Family Limited Partnership Developments
• Tweaking Grantor Trust and GRAT Planning

Steve Akers has 25 years of experience in estate planning and probate law matters. Mr. Akers joined Bessemer Trust in 2002 and directs the Legacy Planning group for the Southwest Region. Mr. Akers was previously a partner with Ernst & Young U.S., where he was director of estate planning for the Southwest Region for six years. Prior to that, he was a partner in the law firm of Jenkens & Gilchrist, where he practiced law for 18 years.

Mr. Akers graduated from Oklahoma State University and the University of Texas Law School.  He serves as the Finance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law and has previously chaired various committees and served on the Supervisory Council of that Section. He is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning. Mr. Akers is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and of the Texas Bar Foundation.  He has also served as Chairman of the State Bar of Texas Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section. 

Special Luncheon Program

Michael Nacht teaches and writes in the fields of U.S. national security and foreign policy and on management strategies. Since assuming the position in 1998, the Goldman School has doubled its space, increased faculty appointments and graduate student enrollment by 50%; launched research initiatives in the fields of information technology and public policy as well as international environmental policy; and established executive programs for practitioners in Mexico City, Sacramento and East Asia. The School was ranked the nation's #1 graduate school of public policy analysis in the April 2004 US News & World Report.

From 1994 to 1997, after unanimous U.S. Senate confirmation, Nacht served as Assistant Director for Strategic and Eurasian Affairs of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. He directed the Agency's work on nuclear arms reduction and missile defense negotiations with Russia and designed the first high-level nuclear arms dialogue with China. He participated in five summit meetings with President Clinton: four with Russian President Yeltsin and one with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.  Professor Nacht recently chaired an advisory panel of the Office of the Secretary of Defense on combating terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction in the United States. He is a member of the Educators’ Advisory Panel to the Comptroller General of the United States, serves on an advisory committee to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and is on the Board of the Bay Area Economic Forum.
He is the author, co-author or editor of five books and his articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Organization, International Security, Survival and other journals.

Steve Fayne was awarded the JCEF Professional Advisor of the Year Award at the luncheon program.

If you have any questions about the annual JCEF Tax & Estate Planning Seminar or would like to be a corporate sponsor, please contact Jennifer Gorovitz at JenniferG@sfjcf.org.