Richard was recuperating from knee surgery as of this writing and was eager to get back to the podium, not to mention weekends at the golf course. After a lifetime in the industry, Richard's collegial circle reads like a Who's Who of the profession, and that's something he treasures.

"There's a real camaraderie between the people who speak on the circuit," Richard says. "Writing and speaking, although it brings in business, does another thing. It creates some great friendships."

Statehouse Influence
Steve Oshins, an estate planning attorney and member of Oshins & Associates LLC, has authored three Nevada laws in the last six years.

Steve's first law, enacted in 2003, made charging orders a judgment creditor's only means of accessing assets held in a Nevada limited partnership or limited liability company, enhancing the asset protection afforded by these entities. Then in 2005 he authored Nevada's dynasty trust law.  It allows grantors to establish trusts that can enjoy protection from creditors, divorcing spouses and estate taxes for up to 365 years.

Steve chatted from his Las Vegas office recently about his latest bill and what it takes to influence policy.

PW:  When an individual transfers an entity interest to family, Internal Revenue Code Section 2704(b) effectively limits valuation discounts based on the state's default law regarding entity distributions.  In a nutshell, the less restrictive the state default law, the lower the potential discount.  So in writing the new bill that created Nevada restricted entities, was it your strategy to make their default law the most restrictive, to allow the potentially largest valuation discounts?

Steve Oshins:  Yes.  The default law for a Nevada restricted LLC or LP is to not allow distributions to owners for 10 years, which is an arbitrary figure I made up because it is much more restrictive than the default law in any other state.  Under every other state's default law, there is no such restriction on distributions.  So the valuation discounts using a Nevada restricted entity are significantly higher than the discounts that can be obtained using any other state's law.  Your readers can find a more detailed legal discussion in some articles on this topic at www.oshins.com.

It's important to understand that 10 years isn't a requirement.  It's a default that comes into play only when the articles of organization or certificate of limited partnership opts into the restricted LLC or LP and either is silent about restrictions on distributions or specifies a 10-year lock-up period.  The draftsman can instead choose to lock up the restricted entity's assets for less than 10 years, or to lock up less than all of the assets, but of course that creates a smaller valuation discount.

PW: You've written three laws now, but the restricted entities law is different, isn't it?

Steve Oshins:   With the other laws, I basically copied other states' versions and integrated their language into our statutes.  This one I wrote from scratch because I was setting up a law that no other state has.  So I was more excited when this one passed because it was groundbreaking.