MET offers free Conservation Easement Course
Conservation Easements are an important tool for land preservation, let the folks at Maryland Environmental Trust walk you through the process. See the press release below:
Maryland Environmental Trust presents a free informational course:
“Conservation Easements – Legal and Financial Aspects”
Monday, October 18, 2010 from 8:45 a.m. to 12 noon
What you will learn: In this course you will learn standard conservation easement terms; the property, income and estate tax benefits of donating a conservation easement; and basics of conservation easement appraisals. You will walk away knowing the full suite of advantages that conservation easements provide your landowner clients. The course will cover the easement donation process and provide the tools needed to advise clients on such a donation. The course will also include recent changes in the Internal Revenue Code relating to charitable donations of conservation easements. Areas of legal practice include: Real Estate, Estate Planning and Tax Law.
Who should attend: Attorneys, CPAs, Appraisers, Real Estate Agents, and landowners interested in land conservation
Speakers include: James Constable, Esq. of Wright, Constable and Skeen, L.L.P. Mr. Constable’s areas of practice include conservation easements and estate planning; he is the author of several publications on these subjects.
Don Briggs, MAI, SRA, of Briggs and Associates, Inc. Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants. Mr. Briggs has over 36 years of appraisal experience, holds the Appraisal Institute’s Valuation of Conservation Easements certificate, and is Maryland’s only LEED AP+ Appraiser.
Kristen O. Maneval, Esq. of the State of Maryland Office of the Attorney General, Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Ms. Maneval is counsel to the Maryland Environmental Trust.
John Hutson, Maryland Environmental Trust Conservation Easement Program Manager. Mr. Hutson has more than 20 years experience negotiating, drafting, processing and stewarding conservation easements in Maryland.
Doors open at 7:45 am and the program will begin at 8:45 am. Coffee and breakfast will be provided.
This event will be held in
People’s Resource Center, Conference Room A,
First Floor, 100 Community Place, Crownsville, Maryland. Parking is free.
For a course agenda and driving directions please visit http://www.dnr.state.md.us/met/pdfs/conservation_easement_course.pdf. This course is free.
Please register before October 13th by sending an email with the subject of “Register Conservation Easements – Legal and Financial Aspects” to lholmes@dnr.state.md.us or by calling 410-514-7901.
For more information please visit MET’s website: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/met/.
Maryland Environmental Trust, a state-wide land trust, has been accepting conservation easements for more than three decades and holds over 1000 easements, protecting over 125,000 acres of forest, farmland and scenic open space across Maryland. MET was established in 1967 by the Maryland General Assembly to preserve privately owned farm and forest lands and significant natural resources. MET is a unit of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and is governed by a citizen board of trustees.