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FEATURE STORY
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Googling for Trusts and Estates
Materials on the Web
Quick, easy
and free searching for T&E practice resources on the Internet
By Donald H. Kelley
For information, many trusts-and-estates professionals rely on
commercial tax research services. The strengths of these services are
their search capabilities, the scope and depth of their content, and the
quality of their expert analysis and commentary. But sometimes you can
accomplish certain search goals more easily with generic, free search
engines, such as Google. Of course,
these search engines are no substitute for commercially available
products and services. But they are quick, convenient and practical.
Search Engines
There's an abundance of trusts-and-estates related material (of variable
quality) on the Internet. Despite the hodgepodge of information, some
generic search engines -- with their powerful indexing facilities -- are
now sophisticated enough to produce relevant, specialized results.
Though I'm focusing here on Google,
it's not the only act in town. Yahoo!
rivals Google in scope, relevance
ranking and useful features. Also, Twingine searches both Google and Yahoo!, presenting the results on a
single screen. And MSN Search has
a large database and a relevance ranking that sometimes offer results
the others don't.
There also are metasearch engines, like those listed at Wikipedia, which search multiple search
sources and cover different topical areas, such as accountancy, business
and legal. Some metasearch engines give users the top search results
from search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Windows Live. Though the metasearch
engines enable you to sweep through large bodies of data with a broad
brush, they are sometimes overly inclusive.
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Searching Tips
Here are a few tips to increase your search efficiency:
Search terms -- basic. By default, Google treats your search phrase as
having AND connectors, so you do not need to use them. To confine your
search to an exact phrase, place it in quotes. Be sure that you spell
the words correctly; you can't count on Google to catch a mispelled word,
though it often does.
Search terms -- boolean. Google can do searches with
boolean connectors. In addition to the default AND connector, you may
use the OR connector, such as GRAT OR GRUT (the OR must be in caps), as
opposed to the AND connector in GRAT AND GRUT.
Wording your search -- guidance. Yahoo! maintains a Search
Tips page with useful suggestions for wording searches. The Essentials of Google
Search page offers practical guidance on searches and search terms.
Narrowing your search. Google Advanced Search
and Yahoo!
Advanced Web Search let you search all words, any of the words, or
exact phrases. It also allows you to search by excluding certain words.
But that's not all.
The links at the top of the screen enable you to search by images, news,
scholarly articles, blogs and more. The "Advanced Search" function
enables you to search not only by keyword, but also by language, region
and date. The Google
Advanced Search page even lets you confine your search to specific
file formats, such as PowerPoint (.ppt) or Excel (.xls). For example, a
search for "GRAT GRUT" (without quotes) confined to PowerPoint produces
the Baldwin
Management Company slideshow comparing GRATs and GRUTs.
Definitions. In both Yahoo!
and Google, preceding a word or
exact search phrase (one in quotes) with the word "definition" (without
quotes) will confine the results to definitions of the word or phrase.
In Google, searching the word and
"definition" (without quotes) brings up both Web pages with definitions
of the search term and Google's "Web
Definitions" page. In Yahoo!, the
first item that appears in the search for a legal search term is the Law.com legal dictionary definition.
Finding a recently searched Web page. If you are looking for a
page you recently viewed, you can access search to pages viewed within a
specified time frame by using Google
or Yahoo! Advanced
Search. Most browsers also have features that enable you to easily
access sites from your browsing history.
Periodic email delivery of search results. With Google Alerts, you can order
daily delivery of search results based on the search terms you enter. An
example is "estate tax repeal."
For convenience, consider adding the Google
Toolbar to the address bar of your Internet
Explorer browser. There also is a Google
Toolbar for the Mozilla
Firefox browser.
More Search Guidance
The Virtual Chase, a research
tool for legal professionals, includes "Tips for Conducting
Internet Research," and the American
College of Trust and Estate Counsel Web site links to additional
tips and suggestions for using Google.
More generally, Diana Botluk's "Strategies for Online
Legal Research: Determining the Best Way to Get What You Need" and
Jerry Lawson's "Extras
-- Internet Legal Research Bibliography" links to resources on Web
searching and research techniques and to Jan Bissett's and Margi
Heinen's "Reference from Coast
to Coast: Stalking and Finding the Full-Text Article." Both of these
resources are on the LLRX.com Web
site.
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Researching With
Search Engines
With generic search engines, you can find both primary materials, such
as tax laws, as well as regulations and secondary materials, such as
outlines and slideshows on a given topic.
Finding primary materials. Google is good at finding primary
materials, such as the text of court cases, rulings and other Internal
Revenue Service publications, based on a search of the title or case
name. Here are some examples:
Searching for "Rev. Rul. 2006-26" (concerning the conditions under which
an individual retirement account (IRA) or other qualified plan
distribution made payable to a marital trust will qualify for the
qualified terminable interest property marital deduction) brings up the
IRS Web page with the text of that ruling.
Entering "200247001" brings up as the first result the original text of
Technical Advice
Memorandum 200247001, holding that IRAs payable to the owner's
estate may not receive an estate tax valuation discount for either
built-in income tax or lack of marketability.
You may also search for primary materials through state tax departments
and other government Web sites. Suppose your client is thinking of
acquiring ranch land in Nebraska and wants to know whether Nebraska has
a state estate tax. A Google search
for "Nebraska state estate tax" will produce the Nebraska Revenue
Department summary of the state inheritance
tax, as well as the Nebraska Estate
Tax Return, with the repeal of the state estate tax for deaths after
Jan. 1, 2007. This gives you fast and easy results without having to
find -- and wade through -- the Nebraska Department of Revenue Web
site.
Finding secondary materials. Searching the Internet for secondary
materials is a little like trying to find something in that pile of
papers and magazines on the corner of your desk. Though the results are
not always ranked in the order that would be most helpful to you, you
will often be surprised by what comes up.
For example, a Google search of
"charitable gifts tax benefits" produces (among other materials) "Conrad Teitell's
Guide to Tax Benefits for Charitable Gifts" from the June 2007 issue
of Trusts & Estates
magazine and Charity
Navitagor's summary on the Tax
Benefits of Giving Web site.
Sometimes, when looking for secondary sources, you may want to go to the
Google Book Search page, which
searches for all books registered with Google. A search for "trusts and
estates" will bring up over 1,000 titles when you search with quotes and
over 5,000 titles when you search without quotation marks.
As with any search engine, the searcher must carefully evaluate the
content for reliability. Materials published solely on the Internet are
not filtered for accuracy, as is more often the case with print
publications. But Google searches
are not for laypeople to rely on any more than using online will kits
should be. And, quite frankly, most lay people would be better off
consulting a professional advisor than the Internet.
To assist you in evaluating the reliability of secondary materials found
on the Internet, visit the University of Wisconsin's "Consider the Source:
Resources for evaluating information." The page links to "Ten Cs for
Evaluating Internet Resources," which takes into account such
factors as the content, credibility and context of the resources you are
evaluating. Suggested elements to consider include: (1) the author's
background and qualifications, (2) the editorial or review process the
materials went through, and (3) the cited sources upon which the
materials are based.
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(continuation of article)
Bottom Line
Consider experimenting with Google
and other generic Internet search engines when looking for T&E documents
and resources. It may not only save you time, but may also lead you to
some helpful resource materials.
Trusts & Estates magazine is pleased to present the monthly
Technology Review by Donald H. Kelley -- a respected connoisseur of
software and Internet resources wealth management advisors use to
further their practices.
Kelley is a lawyer living in Highlands Ranch, Colo. and is of counsel
to the law firm of Kelley, Scritsmier & Byrne, P.C. of North Platte,
Neb. He is the co-author of Intuitive Estate Planner Software
(Thomson - West 2007). He has served on the governing boards of the
American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Trust Section and
the American College of Tax Counsel. He is a past regent and past chair
of the Committee on Technology in the Practice of the American College
of Trust and Estate Counsel.
Trusts & Estates has asked Kelley to provide his unvarnished opinions
on the tech resources available in the practice today. His columns are
edited for readability only. Send feedback and suggestions for articles
directly to him at dhkelley@qwest.net.
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