Best Practices Around GST Allocation, A View from the IRS
Join us on September 15, 2026, for an insightful presentation on one of the most challenging areas of wealth transfer planning. The GST automatic allocation rules are among the most complex and vague rules in wealth transfer tax. There are several common scenarios in which the rules appear to allocate GST exemption to trusts that are unlikely to need it and fail to allocate it to other trusts that are very likely to need it. In other scenarios, it is unclear whether the GST automatic allocation rules apply at all. Although these rules have been in place since 2001, the IRS has not issued regulations clarifying when a trust receives an automatic allocation of GST exemption. This presentation will discuss these common scenarios, how the rules can frustrate a client’s best interests, and how to address issues that arise when the rules do not produce the intended outcome.
Daniel Gespass is a managing director in the US National Tax practice at Andersen. He focuses on taxation issues related to trust and estate planning and has extensive experience advising on complex estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer, and fiduciary income tax issues.
Dan brings over a decade of experience in both the public and private sectors. Before joining Andersen, he served as a senior technician reviewer at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, where he played a key role in drafting and reviewing Treasury regulations, sub-regulatory guidance, and private letter rulings related to transfer taxation and fiduciary income tax. He also contributed to the development of legislative policy proposals and responded to inquiries from taxpayers, congressional representatives, and professional organizations.
Earlier in his career, Dan practiced at several law firms, where he advised high-net-worth individuals and corporate fiduciaries on estate planning, trust and estate administration, and related tax matters. In addition to his advisory work, Dan has served as an adjunct professor, teaching courses on transfer tax and fiduciary taxation at both Georgetown Law and American University.
Thank you to our 2026 annual sponsors, Commonwealth Savers and PNC Private Bank:
Registration for this event will open closer to the event date.
REQUEST: Should you need to cancel your registration, please email nvepc@ascent-management.com before registration closes. NVEPC provides food and beverages at events based on registration numbers. In order to keep costs down for our members, we request that you cancel your registration if you find you are unable to attend.
Registration fees are non-refundable.
