SFEPC - May 18, 2022 Meeting - The Forgotten 40 Acres: Repairing Racial Wealth Disparity Using the Estate Tax and New Charitable Incentives.

The Forgotten 40 Acres: Repairing Racial Wealth Disparity Using the Estate Tax and New Charitable Incentives

Sarah Moore Johnson
and
Raymond C. Odom

This presentation links the history and purpose of the estate tax to the current racial wealth gap.  Specifically, this program will review the root causes of the racial wealth gap, including the initial success and ultimate failure of General Sherman's Special Field Order #15 promising formerly enslaved Africans 40 tillable acres, as well as subsequent government-backed discriminatory housing policies.  Past reparation efforts in the United States and other parts of the world give insight as to how a successful Black reparations program could be implemented.  The panelists propose that estate taxes and other wealth taxes are the ideal funding source for reparations, and describe how new charitable incentives in the tax law could create a public-private partnership to redress the “forgotten 40 acres”.

Sarah Moore Johnson, Founding Partner, Birchstone Moore LLC. Sarah has a B.S. from Wake Forest University and a J.D. from University of Georgia School of Law. She is an attorney licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia. Sarah is a past President of the Washington D.C. Estate Planning Council and a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). She is on the Board of Trustees of the Greater Washington Community Foundation.

Raymond “Ray” C. Odom, Senior Vice President at Northern Trust, Chicago. He serves as Director of Wealth Transfer Services in the Wealth Management division. Ray has a B.A. from Valparaiso University and a J.D. from The Ohio State - Moritz College of Law. He is an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois and before the U.S. Tax Court. In addition, Ray is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). He is a board member of the National Association of Black Estate Planning Professionals.