Through the Looking Glass Symposium XXIII

Jeff Bannon partners with the owners of capital-intensive businesses and their families to help navigate and attain their long-term business strategy and succession planning goals. For over a decade, Jeff has collaborated with high-net-worth individuals and their advisors addressing complex personal financial and estate planning dynamics to ensure the business and family can thrive for future generations. Jeff has experience working in industries including multi-unit franchising, automotive retail and professional services addressing the sell/keep crossroad with business owners.

Jeff helps owners develop management bench strength and unravel complex interpersonal issues. He is frequently requested to speak and has authored articles for a variety of industry and local publications about strategies owners can use to overcome the complexities facing business succession. Jeff graduated with a bachelor’s in Economics from the University of California Santa Barbara and played professional baseball for eight seasons. Jeff enjoys spending time with his family, an array of outdoors sports and activities, and coaching little league.

Jeff will discuss

Steve Goodall

Steve will discuss

Edward McCafferyis a partner and senior counsel in the Los Angeles office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP and is a member of Seyfarth’s Business Services Department. Mr. McCaffery practices in the area of trusts and estates, taxation and intellectual property.

He is also the Dean and Carl Mason Franklin Chair in Law at the University of Southern California School of Law, where he teaches classes in income taxation, property, corporate tax and partnership tax. From 1995 to 2006, Mr. McCaffery was also a Visiting Professor of Law and Economics at the California Institute of Technology, teaching public finance and law, law and economics, and law and technology (including intellectual property law).

Ed McCaffery's scholarship has been widely cited by economists, government officials, journalists and policy analysts. Among his publications are his recent books, Behavioral Public Finance (which McCaffery co-edited); Fair Not Flat: How to Make the Tax System Better and Simpler, which proposes a tax system based on taxing spending rather than income; and Taxing Women, which examines how working women suffer under current tax laws. Other publications include Rethinking the Vote: The Politics and Prospects of American Election Reform, which he co-edited.

In an effort to reach a wider audience to explain basic concepts of tax and public finance, McCaffery created the People’s Tax Page and a series of animated cartoons featuring Sabrina the Unicorn. McCaffery is a frequent commentator on a variety of tax issues on CNN and The Huffington Post.

Edward McCaffery will discuss the practical applications of recent developments for current estate planning practices. He will also discuss planning opportunities and pitfalls going forward. As always, Ed will shed light on current developments relevant to practitioners and their clients.

Josh Yager, Esq., CFP® is a California trust and estate attorney and Certified Financial Planner™ based in Santa Barbara. He is the founder of Anodos Law PC and Anodos Advisors, where he guides successor trustees and families through trust administration and estate settlement using a fixed-fee, fully remote model. Josh also serves as an expert witness in fiduciary fee and trust litigation, giving him a front-row view of how trust administrations go wrong and how to prevent it.

Most successor trustees step into the role with no training and little idea how much personal liability they’re taking on. Drawing on real cases from his work as an expert witness in fiduciary fee and trust litigation, attorney and CFP® Josh Yager walks through the most common mistakes trustees make and how they end up in court. Attendees will learn practical safeguards for accountings, communicating with beneficiaries, trustee compensation and conflicts of interest. They’ll also learn how professional advisors can spot trouble early and help their clients avoid costly disputes