This Just In... Looking to access NAEPC and affiliated local councils on the go? We've got your answer (and a chance to WIN a complimentary registration to the 50th Annual Conference). Download the FREE NAEPC App for iOS and Android today! Once downloaded, tap the "contest" icon and complete the form to be entered into a drawing to win a complimentary Council Leadership Day or Educational Package registration to the 50th Annual Conference this November 20 – 22, 2013 in Las Vegas*. NAEPC App for iOS NAEPC App for Android *NAEPC must receive contest entry by March 31, 2013 to qualify. Message from the President Joanna Averett, MBA, CFP®, AIF®, AEP® First American Trust San Bernardino, California Dear Friends: As we start 2013, it is with much excitement that I announce the launch of a new technology initiative for the association—an app designed especially for the member on the go! This exciting new mobile application will allow council members access to councils, designees, the Journal, and general information while on the go. Download the app today and complete the "contest" form for your opportunity to win complimentary registration to the 50th Annual Conference. The contest entry must be received by March 31, 2013 to qualify so don't delay! On a separate note, I wish to express my thanks to the Website & Technology Committee and App Task Force for their assistance in creating this new, valuable tool! With April and October approaching faster than we might wish, I would like to encourage you and your affiliated local estate planning council to begin thinking about and planning for National Financial Literacy Month and National Estate Planning Awareness Week. This annual event provides the most perfect opportunity to reach out to clients, colleagues, and friends with a gentle reminder about the need for estate planning by a qualified team of individuals. More information about NFLM and NEPAW can be found below within The NAEPC Education Foundation Corner of this newsletter. Finally, please do consider attending the upcoming 50th Annual Conference. We will join together to celebrate 50 years of fantastic conferences and education, quite a milestone for any association! The annual conference program is the perfect opportunity to gather your yearly continuing education requirement, meet and network with council members from around the country, and, if you are a council leader, spend just a bit of time talking to other estate planning councils. The conference is scheduled from November 20-22, 2013 in Las Vegas—place the date on your calendar today!

Who Are We? Reflections on the Values of NAEPC... The value of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils has been the association with the top practitioners in the field of estate planning throughout the country. Many of the top planners attend our annual conference. Being able to hear from them and ask them questions on a one-to-one basis has been very valuable for my practice. These individuals have also been helpful in taking phone calls and emails to help me with my client cases. Having the AEP and NAEPC allows us to do a much better job for our clients than just basing everything on our own personal knowledge. The clients appreciate the designation in that we are specializing in estate planning and not giving just have a verbal confirmation that we work in that area. Michael W. Halloran, CLU®, ChFC®, AEP®, CFP®, REBC, RHU, LUTCF, MSFS, MSM   In This Issue FEB 2013 Who Are We? Message from the President 50th Annual Conference Accredited Estate Planner® Designation Information Member Benefits, Programs & Services Council Relations Committee Report The NAEPC Education Foundation Corner Estate Planning Law Specialist Designation Information Get Involved! Subscription Options NAEPC National Website {ADDRESS_2} Follow us on:

50th Annual Conference

Jordon N. Rosen, CPA, MS (taxation), AEP®
Belfint, Lyons & Shuman, PA
Wilmington, Delaware

With a successful 49th Annual Conference and a record attendance behind us, the Conference Planning Committee is hard at work planning our 50th Anniversary Conference on November 20-22, 2013 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas hotel and casino. We promise a great lineup of speakers covering the latest estate and trust tax changes and planning techniques, new afternoon breakout sessions on Thursday and Friday, as well as exciting events to celebrate our big Five-O. Mark your calendar now!

If your company is looking for a great opportunity for exposure to a wide range of estate, trust, insurance and financial planning professionals, please consider being a corporate sponsor. Sponsorships start as low as $1,250, with generous benefits for certain higher levels of support. For further information, please download a sponsorship kit.

We look forward to seeing you in November. Viva Las Vegas!

Accredited Estate Planner® Designation Information

M. Eileen Dougherty, CTFA, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®
Hawthorn - PNC Family Wealth
Philadelphia, PA

For all my fellow professionals who burned the midnight oil until the very last minute of 2012, delivering to your clients the best possible service and advice, BRAVO for a job well done! With new tax legislation to digest you have a renewed opportunity to bring value to your clients by giving them the time and attention you may not have had available at year-end. With the holiday break behind us we are all making plans for a wonderful 2013. As you are busy making plans for this new year, may I make a few suggestions?

1. Consider putting our 50th Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 20-22, 2013 on your agenda. The cost is budget-friendly, particularly when you review the quality of the speakers and the vast content covered in their presentations. And since this is our 50th annual educational event, expect a bit of merriment!
2. If you have been considering the next step in your career development, why not consider the AEP® designation? We think the following items should be considered when making this decision as obtaining the designation provides a unique opportunity to:
   • Gain a competitive edge...success requires setting yourself apart from the competition
   • Give the public a way to identify you as a qualified professional estate planner who has the expertise and experience necessary to handle complex estate planning and/or business succession needs
   • Acquire access to potential clients through our national searchable database
   • Tap into the resources of the NAEPC and special members' only benefits
3. If you are already an AEP®, please consider referring a friend. Our strength is derived from the quality of our membership, their continued commitment to the team concept of estate planning, and high standards of excellence. We continue to be energized by the enthusiasm of our 1,650+ members and appreciate the ideas and feedback we receive from them.

I would be remiss if I did not offer my most sincere thanks to the AEP® Designation Committee for their hard work in 2012! Thank you, committee, for a job well done!

NAEPC would like to congratulate the newest Accredited Estate Planner® designees on their achievement:

Keith Atneosen, CFP®, AEP®	Bothell, WA
Lawrence K. Bogar, ChFC®, AEP®	New York, NY
Brett G. Chesmar, CFP®, CTFA, AEP®	Wilmington, DE
Joel Koenig, CLU®, AEP®	Chevy Chase, MD
Lawrence J. Macklin, JD, CPA, AEP®	Baltimore, MD
Ganon J. Studenberg, JD, LL.M. (estate planning), AEP®	Melbourne, FL
Robert E. Tarcza, JD, AEP®	New Orleans, LA
Scott Zurat, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, CASL, AEP®	Fairport, NY

Council Relations Committee Report

Paul S. Viren, CLU®, ChFC®, AEP®
Viren & Associates, Inc.
Spokane,WA

The Council Relations Committee is responsible for being the direct contact for the 230+ councils currently affiliated with NAEPC. This active committee, comprised of 21 engaged volunteers, is assigned regional territories and tasked with making certain each council is taking full advantage of their membership in NAEPC and, as a result, the 27,000 individual members of these councils are doing so as well.

The committee is trained to provide the local council assistance with regard to using benefits, programs, and services offered through membership in NAEPC and to encourage participation in the following initiatives:

1. "Every Council Campaign"–which allows the NAEPC contact with the local membership through this newsletter
2. The AEP designation and council nomination program
3. Website platforms and support
4. The Annual Conference
5. Member benefits
6. National Financial Literacy Month (April)
7. National Estate Planning Awareness Week (3rd week in October)

We appreciate the work of these dedicated volunteers and their efforts in communicating with the local Councils. If you are a council leader, please welcome their call when they reach out to you. Members of affiliated local councils that have questions about NAEPC are encouraged to reach out directly to the national office at any time.

Member Benefits, Programs & Services

NAEPC strives to offer our designees, councils, and the affiliated local council membership high-quality benefits, programs and services at value pricing. We continually look for opportunities that will enhance the value of your membership and make your practice more efficient.

We are very proud to make the following benefits available to you, the members of our affiliated local councils, at reduced prices or substantial discounts. A brief description of each product or program can be found online in the member benefits section of our website, along with pricing and ordering information. Some of the resources are even complimentary—take a look today!

ABA Book Publishing / The ABA Checklist for Family Heirs Acquire Direct Marketing Advisys American Dream Planner LLC Amicus Creative Media & Legal Vault BizActions LLC Business Valuation Resources, LLC CBData™ Charitable Planning Desk Reference for Advisors / Strategic Philanthropy CrummeyService Discuss Directives, LLC - Heart2Heart Workbook & Deck of Cards DocuBank Estate Planning Smarts / Pensworth EstatePlanningBinders.com Family Business Magazine Fiserv Investment Services

Florida Domicile Handbook International Genealogical Search Inc. Klark Proposal Software Konica Minolta Business Solutions Lawgic, LLC LegacyQuest, LLC Midwest Transaction Group My Perfect Will My Personal DataSafe LLC Oswald Companies Personal Excess Liability Private Wealth Magazine PS Awards Ruby Receptionists Sterling Cut Glass The Ultimate Estate Planner Trusts & Estates Wall Street Cards WealthManagement.com

Please remember... all members must utilize a user name/password to access detailed ordering links and information. If you are an At-large member or member of a council that utilizes passwords on a website hosted by NAEPC, you can use the "I forgot my password" option. Others should contact NAEPC with questions about the appropriate user name/password combination.

The NAEPC Education Foundation Corner

Valentino Sabuco, CFP®, AEP®
Executive Director & Publisher
V.Sabuco@TheNAEPCEF.org
(707) 322-1597

Happy New Year!

We are starting off the New Year with new tax laws and have also just received the first grant approval for 2013 from the Morgan Stanley Foundation! I wish to thank NAEPC board member, S. Mark Alton, for his assistance in obtaining this very important grant.

We are working on financial awareness campaigns for 2013, starting with National Financial Literacy Month in April. Please join our distinguished 2013 honorary co-chairpersons Jonathan Blattmachr, Esq., AEP® (Distinguished), recognized as one of the country's most creative trusts and estates lawyers, author and speaker; and Janet Novack, leading financial journalist, exceptional communicator, and the Washington D.C. Bureau Chief & Executive Editor for Forbes, in participating in National Financial Literacy Month. The Stelter Group and Martin M. Shenkman, CPA, MBA, PFS, AEP®, JD will be offering live webinars. For more information, click here: http://www.naepc.org/estate_planning_week.web or on the public portal at http://www.estateplanninganswers.org/national-financial-awareness-campaigns.

Campaign goals for 2013 include increasing our councils' interest and participation through fun competitions and involving at least five new major financial service companies, non profits, and media companies to actively support National Financial Literacy Month and National Estate Planning Awareness Week. What do you, your firm, and your council have in mind for April and October?

We are working on updating our public content at www.EstatePlanningAnswers.org with the new tax laws and have started working with the Stelter Company on a 2013 research/white paper that will add new insight to the 2012 Stelter Donor Insight Report found online at http://www.stelter.com/footerfiles/researchwhitepapers.html.

We've also launched our 2013 NAEPC Education Foundation Capital Campaign. Our goal is to earn the support and assistance from 100% of NAEPC's 230 affiliated local estate planning councils and their 27,000 members, as doing so will allow us to build The NAEPC Education Foundation into the ‘foundation of choice' for estate planning professionals. Please help us by making a generous contribution of time and money from your council, as an individual, and by asking your companies about grants and/or donation matching to help support the capital campaign and programs.

Many companies provide charitable contributions to organizations that its employees and retirees spend volunteer and service time on. If you company provides such a community service benefit, your volunteer time spent with The NAEPC Education Foundation or with NAEPC can earn double benefits. Check with your HR department to see if they have such a program. If not, see what it would take to establish one.

Your generous donation of time or money will help provide infrastructure and tools to continue increasing financial awareness and financial literacy by educating and motivating the public to take appropriate action to improve their financial wellbeing while driving new business to you, members of your NAEPC-affiliated local council, AEP® designees, and financial service companies. These achievements will make every donor proud, help our economy, and improve everyone's financial lifestyle. You can make a direct contribution here.

If you or a client would like to make a planned giving gift or bequest, or to learn more about us and how you can make a ‘meaningful difference', please contact me directly at V.Sabuco@TheNAEPCEF.org or (707) 322-1597.

Thank you for your assistance and support.

Valentino Sabuco, CFP®, AEP®
Executive Director & Publisher

Estate Planning Law Specialist Designation Information

The Estate Planning Law Specialist (EPLS) designation is available to attorneys and is administered by the Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc., an attorney-run subsidiary of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. Attorneys who become board-certified under this program demonstrate a high level of professionalism and commitment to the concept of specialization. This program is currently the only program, other than certain state bar association programs which are only for residents of their particular states, accredited by the American Bar Association to Board-certify attorneys as Estate Planning Law Specialists.

Get Involved!

Talented Volunteers Needed!

NAEPC is a dynamic and growing association comprised of affiliated local estate planning councils, their 27,000 members, and Accredited Estate Planner® designees, led entirely by a volunteer board of directors, a strong committee configuration, and many volunteers serving on an as-needed basis for project-based or task force work. We are always looking to expand our volunteer base and encourage council leaders, council members, and designees to get involved by serving on one or more committee. Visit our website for a list of committees and an application.

National Association of Estate Planners & Councils 1120 Chester Avenue, Suite 470 Cleveland, OH  44114
Phone: (866) 226-2224  ~  Fax: (216) 696-2582  ~  E-Mail: admin@naepc.org

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