Tom Kelley

McGrath North is proud to announce that it has achieved significant recognition in the latest editions of both The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America. In the 31st edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, 45 of our attorneys have been honored across 60 distinct practice areas, showcasing the firm’s deep expertise and commitment to delivering exceptional legal services.  

This summit is designed for professionals seeking to strengthen their organization’s compliance strategy in a world where data protection is more critical than ever.  

On December 6, 2022, McGrath North held its Privacy & Data Protection Summit at the Scott Conference Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The over 100 attendees from almost 70 companies at the half-day event had the opportunity to hear speakers and panelists, including guest experts from the industry, share insights on key topics including:  

529 plans are popular education-savings tools due to their tax-deferred growth and tax-free withdrawals for qualified expenses, such as tuition and books. They offer generous lifetime contribution limits, which vary by state, and have been made more flexible with new rules allowing funds to be used in some states for K-12 tuition and in certain circumstances reallocated to a Roth IRA. However, some parents seek alternatives due to uncertainties about their child’s education plans or the desire for more financial flexibility.  

Given the prevalence of blended families in today’s society, oftentimes estate planning counsel and financial planners work with married (or soon to be married) clients where one spouse may not wish to name their spouse (or future spouse) the primary beneficiary of their respective individual retirement account and/or company qualified retirement plan account. This situation may arise where a significant portion of such spouse’s net worth resides in such accounts and the spouse wants all or a portion of such account to be passed down to his or her biological children rather than his or her current spouse who is not the biological parent of such children. Such clients may not realize that individual retirement accounts differ from company qualified retirement plan accounts with respect to the potential requirement of “spousal consent.”