Burning Questions (and Even Hotter Answers) About Grantor Trusts By Samuel A. Donaldson Professor and Director, Graduate Program in Taxation University of Washington School of Law Of Counsel Perkins Coie LLP Seattle, Washington © 2010 Samuel A. Donaldson. All rights reserved. These materials consider several of today's "hot" issues regarding the use of grantor trusts in contemporary estate planning. They are intended to give some answers to questions frequently asked by practitioners. In some cases, the answers are firm conclusions but most of the time they are little more than one person's opinion. Because of that, and because these materials focus on frontier issues, they are not intended to impart legal advice and no one should rely on their contents. Despite best intentions, however, some of the statements in these materials could be construed as legal advice. Accordingly, we have to get more formal: please be advised that any federal tax advice contained in these materials is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or for the purpose of promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. While we're at it, any federal tax advice contained in these materials is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, to support any position taken on any tax or information return, to support a determination that any such position satisfies any return preparation standard or to avoid any penalties arising from any such position. Finally, it should be noted that portions of these materials are adapted from published remarks given at the 40th Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning.I These materials elaborate ' Samuel A. Donaldson, Understanding Grantor Trusts, in 40 HECKERLING INSTITUTE ON ESTATE PLANNING 2-1 (Tina Portuando ed., 2006). 1 EFTA01139566