When Good Gifts Go Bad: Examples and Lessons Learned
U.S. citizens belong to the most philanthropic nation on earth. But the number of ways that donative intent can be thwarted is limited only by the imagination (or inertia) of the giver (or her/his advisors). This presentation is intended to demonstrate that truth via examples of where gifts went wrong, hence the title: When Good Gifts Go Bad: Examples and Lessons Learned.
Speaker Bio:
Mr. Small is Trust Counsel for Fiduciary Trust in Pennsylvania. In this role, Scott provides in-house advice and counsel to the clients of Fiduciary Trust in its Radnor office. Scott supports client retention, estate planning and business development efforts within the region, as well as supplying subject matter expertise for all fiduciary activities across the market. Scott is a member of the Fiduciary Trust Regional Trust Administrative and Real Estate Committees, as well as the Regional Management Oversight Group.
Prior to joining Fiduciary Trust, Mr. Small worked at two national banks for a combined 25+ years where he held numerous positions, including the Regional Fiduciary Manager posts for Trust Services and Estate Services, along with National Managing Director posts for Estate Settlement and Administration, Life Insurance Trust Administration, Special Needs Trust Administration, Estate Tax and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax business segments. Over his career, Scott has chaired two Regional Trust Administrative Committees and was a member of both National and Regional Charitable Trust Administrative Committees.
Mr. Small is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, spending almost 10 years with two prominent national law firms before leaving private practice. Scott is a cum laude graduate of the University of Florida School of Law and a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan. Scott is a past president of the Philadelphia Estate Planning Council (2010), the largest regional estate planning council in the nation, a past chair of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association (2020), and he served two terms (2014-2016, 2021-2023) as a member of the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association, the oldest professional association of lawyers in the nation.
Mr. Small’s provision of pro bono estate administration services to families who lost loved ones on 9/11 was featured in an article published in the September 2004 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. Scott is a frequent author and lecturer for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and the Philadelphia Bar Association, he lectured at the 2010 Hawaii Tax Institute and 2013 University of Southern California Gould School of Law Tax Institute, and his chapter on “Choosing Fiduciaries” has been published in every edition of Estate Planning in Pennsylvania (PBI Press 5th ed. 2019).
