On Demand
Audio
LGBTQ Estate Planning and Related Rights under the Current Supreme Court
Produced on September 22, 2020
Course Information
Course Description
The march to marriage equality for the LGBTQ community seemingly moved at the speed of light when compared with other equality struggles. Yet, like other struggles for equality, what occurred before and after the apex is critical to understand. Several factors are involved in most legal struggles for equality: generally, the public must reach a point where the majority are either in favor of or ambivalent to the issue; legislators must be willing to bring the matter before their colleagues; the Federal administration must not be adverse, or the Supreme Court must have a majority that is either reasonably in favor of the law or contains one or more majority members willing to provide a plurality vote.
This program, presented by Max Elliott, founder of a Chicago-based firm practicing estate planning and wealth preservation for the LGBTQ community, women, and small business owners, will engage in a high-level discussion of the landscape of critical and life-altering estate planning issues for the LGBTQ community, and how that is defined by different SCOTUS decisions. In addition to managing the Law Firm of Max Elliott, Ms. Elliott is a member of the Chicago Bar Association Trust Law Executive Committee, Chicago Estate Planning Council, and American Bar Foundation Fellow. She frequently presents on estate planning topics such as marriage equality and the intersection of retirement and estate planning.
Learning Objectives:
- Review the evolving jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court and how its composition has affected equality issues for the LGBTQ community
- Analyze the confluence of laws, beginning with SCOTUS and flowing through to administrative and state agencies, that affect LGBTQ family equality
- Discuss intersecting estate planning and family law issues, such as adoption, affecting LGBTQ families
- Use appropriate estate planning techniques to protect LGBTQ families, including choice of law provisions
Credit Information
Faculty
Max Elliott
The Law Offices of Max Elliott, Ltd
Max Elliott, Managing Attorney and Founder of The Law Offices of Max Elliott, Ltd., is a licensed, Illinois estate planning, estate administration, and wealth preservation attorney. Her firm, with offices in Chicago and New York City, focuses on unique families and women small business owners, and services include estate planning for taxable and non-taxable estates, estate administration, and advising small businesses in start-up, growth, restructuring, cybersecurity compliance, and succession planning phases.
On behalf of her firm, Ms. Elliott is also General Counsel for the Bernie Mac Foundation, Inc., a private non-profit foundation, and spearheaded the organization’s most recent restructuring.
Ms. Elliott routinely speaks to lawyers, students, and community groups on the intersection of estate and retirement planning; small business essentials, including legal entity selection, succession planning, generational wealth transfers, and cybersecurity program planning; and fiduciary selection and other protective measures for seniors and the LGBTQ community.
She is ranked as one of the Top 100 Black Lawyers by the National Black Lawyers organization, a member of the Executive Committee for the Chicago Bar Association’s Trust Law Committee, a 2017-18 Super Lawyers® Rising Star, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a volunteer faculty member for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE), a faculty member for Manhattan, New York-based Lawline that provides online legal CLE for attorneys nationwide, a faculty member of Esquire CLE, a member of the U.S. Trust, Bank of America Center of Influence on estate planning, ranked “Superb” and a recipient of the Top Contributor in Estate Planning Award from Avvo, a lawyer peer ranking site, and a member of the Association of African American Financial Advisors.
Before launching her practice in 2011, Ms. Elliott was a law clerk in a small tax law firm, assisting the principal in probate, domestic relations, corporate records, and non-profit corporation compliance.
Ms. Elliott graduated from DePaul University College of Law and, while there, Ms. Elliott co-founded, as Co-Editor-In-Chief, the DePaul Journal of Women, Gender and the Law, the first legal journal in Illinois dedicated to women and gender legal issues. She also served for 2 years as Editor of DePaul’s public interest law newsletter, “The Advocate.”
In addition to her legal experience, Ms. Elliott has more than 20 years of non-legal experience, including several years’ employment in the American Bar Association’s International Liaison Office and several years with Fortune 500 companies, including a former “Big 8 Accounting Firm” and a leading international management consulting firm.
Throughout Ms. Elliott's career, she has also assisted entrepreneurs in creating viable business planning solutions, such as creating and implementing marketing plans, strategic operation plans, securing capital, and business succession. She has worked with start-ups in the personal care, healthcare, small manufacturing, and nonprofit sectors. This experience provides a solid foundation for the business advisory services she provides to small business owners.
Ms. Elliott has received numerous awards, starting in law school and continuing through her legal career, for her commitment to advocating for the rights of marginalized individuals and communities.
Besides her blog started in 2011, “The Lotus Rules,” (formerly, “The Shark Free Zone”), Ms. Elliott's publications include “Improving Afghanistan Maternal Mortality Rates despite the Lack of the Rule of Law,” International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) Human Rights and Rule of Law Review, Fall 2010; “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: What the Reversal of U.S. Asylum Law Means to Advocates and Women Asylum Seekers,” The Women's Advocate, Fall 2009; and “Catching Up with International Criminals in the Twenty-First Century: Modifying and Accelerating U.S. Extradition,” White Paper, Library of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, Spring 2009. Ms. Elliott is also the author of the non-fiction book, “Ms. Thang, Real Knights Don't Show Up at 3 in the Morning,” published by Pocket Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster.
Presentations
- Virtual Estate Planning: Digital Currency & Posthumous Children
- Preventing Disasters: Estate Planning for Older, Unmarried, LGBTQ Couples in Illinois
- Future Planning: Cryptocurrency, Cryonics & Posthumously Conceived Children
- Planning Family-Owned Businesses: Avoiding Earthquakes and Landslides while Building Legacies
- Diversity Matters: In/Tolerance Tales from the Solo/Small Firm Trenches
- How to Incorporate Estate Planning into Your Offering: The Silver Tsunami, Planning Trends, and Estate Planning Myths
- Avoiding the ARDC Checkmate: The Ethical Difficulties of Lawyers Functioning in Dual Roles
- Professional Wills and Advanced Directives for the Solo/Small Firm Practitioner,
- Working in a Solo Small Firm Practice Environment
- Estate Planning and Wealth Preservation Considerations
- The Lottery & Estate Planning for Elders: You Don't Need A Ticket to Win
- What if I Am Neither: Estate Planning for the Transgender and Queer Community
- Estate Planning for LGBTQ Couples: Legal Changes in Plain English, Part Deux
- Estate Planning for LGBTQ Couples: Legal Changes in Plain English
- Celebrating Black History Month: The Essence of the African American Community and the Law
- Tax and Estate Planning for Same-Sex Couples
- The Silver Tsunami: Are You Prepared? (Estate Planning for Baby Boomers & Their Families)
- Fundamental Estate Planning Documents for Today’s Families
- Succession Planning for Attorneys
- Basic Estate Planning Is an Oxymoron
- Fundamental Estate Planning Documents for Same-Sex Couples
- Changes in the Estate Planning Landscape in Light of the Illinois Civil Union
- Basic and Intermediate Estate Planning Fundamentals
- Marriage Equality, Hot Topics in Family Law,
- LGBT Employment and Relationship Rights
- Estate Planning and the Illinois Civil Union
Professional Affiliations
- Chicago Bar Association
- Illinois Bar Association
- American Bar Association
Volunteer Support
- Chicago Women’s Health Center
- Howard Brown Center
- Marillac-St. Vincent Family Services
- Legal Advisory Board of Raise the Floor Alliance,
Education
DePaul University College of Law, International Law
Northwestern University, Political Science, International Relations
Reviews
nicely done; well presented and helpful.
Speaker was very knowledgeable and impressive.
At first I thought the presenter spent too much time on major cases, but in the 2nd half brought it around to the estate planning considerations.
very good, thorough explanation with ample case citations.