BNA Software — BNA Estate & Gift Tax Planner

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From the June/July 2007 Review of Estate Planning Systems

In addition to fixed asset management, income tax planning, corporate tax planning, and sales and use tax software, BNA Software offers various estate and gift tax compliance and planning programs, including the BNA Estate & Gift Tax Planner. This system includes a broad array of functions specifically designed to these two tasks, with the ability to handle very complex planning and distribution scenarios and providing attractive visual reporting. The system also offers additional tools for client presentation and correspondence. The BNA Estate & Gift Tax Planner costs $1,495 for a single-user license with additional users available for $205 each.

Ease of Use/Basic Functionality -- 5 Stars
BNA Software has recently revamped the Planner’s primary interface, which now opens to a crisp workspace that offers a large view of the Main Worksheet in the master window. The Main Worksheet provides a centralized columnar summary of key data for multiple cases/scenarios, including adjusted gross estate, marital and charitable deductions, federal and state values, and tax liabilities. From this screen, users can easily drilldown to each of the primary worksheets involved in a planning scenario, and these worksheets can be kept open and accessible via tabs across the top of the Main Worksheet. Within the main window, users can also easily reverse order of death, add cases for multiple scenarios or use the zoom feature to change font size. Data-entry forms are simple and generally intuitive, with gross estate information following the same general format as Form 706, while the Analysis Wizard assists in initial setup of new client information with templates for many traditional estate and gift scenarios and options for married and single clients.

A panel to the left offers tabbed access to display Assumptions, Messages relating to the engagement, or a versatile Worksheets menu. The worksheets view provides an expandable vertical menu that can be arranged by form name/number or by topic, and provide sub-worksheets, which makes it easy to find specifically what the user needs. An additional function also allows users to place Sticky Notes to any worksheet field. A customizable Flowchart function can also be displayed below the Main Worksheet, showing the user the various components of the estate and planning process. Subsidiary flowcharts can also be set up for generation-skipping transfers and specialized client needs. A toolbar at the top of the screen provides traditional icons for quickly accessing all of the main features within the system, including one-click access to graphs for Total Death Taxes, Total Family Share, Estate Distribution, Gross Estate, Liquidity and a Custom graph.

The program offers good customization functions, including general features that enable easy manipulation of scenarios, custom naming of title captions, multiple views for selecting worksheets, and variable data-entry functions, as well as productivity features such as adding notes to fields. A Client Letter Library also adds value to the program, providing a variety of correspondence templates that users can customize as desired.

Calculations -- 5 Stars
The BNA Estate & Gift Tax Planner calculates estate or inheritance taxes for all states and D.C., including calculations for states that decoupled from changes to the federal estate tax as a result of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA). The program offers an exceptional set of reliable, interrelated calculations that post in real-time to assist the professional in planning multiple scenarios for the client. It can simultaneously calculate up to three family planning scenarios or up to six unmarried client plans, while managing marital, charitable and state deductions; GST transfers; and charitable trusts. For gift taxes, the system can handle up to 18 prior and 20 future gifts, and can perform qualified personal residence trusts, GRATs, GRUTs, GRITs, including joint life calculations with actuarials based on two lives. State and marital deductions can be easily adjusted, along with adjusted gross estate and special QTIP situations.

BNA Estate & Gift Tax Planner automatically determines the minimum marital gift that will result in a zero or lowest possible federal tax, and allows the specification of assets not included as marital gifts and whether family gifts are federal and state tax free. The program handles the Sec. 6166 interrelated interest deduction for deferred estate tax payments. Minimum distributions can be created out to 60 years. BNA Estate & Gift Tax Planner also includes diagnostic alerts that can notify the user of data inconsistencies.