John Wick - What You Need To Know about the Corporate Transparency Act
Once Removed Episode 24: Expressing Goals and Intent for the Trust
Once Removed Episode 22: Building Flexibility into the Estate Plan
Once Removed Episode 20: Helping a Beneficiary Purchase a Home
Once Removed Episode 19: The Step-Transaction Doctrine and the Case of Smaldino
Next Generation Legacy Management - The Essence of Developing, Managing and Implementing a Plan for Future Generations
A Primer On Trusts - A Podcast with Janathan Allen
Once Removed Episode 13: It’s 5 o’Clock: Do You Know Where Your Will Is? A Lesson From Aretha Franklin
Charitable Bequests With Guest Stephanie Hood
Once Removed Episode 12: SLATs and the Case of McKim vs. McKim
Once Removed Episode 11: Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts, or SLATs
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: Family Office Technology Solutions
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: The Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act
What is a self-proving affidavit?
The Importance of Beneficiary Designations
Basics of Estate Planning
The Case of the Disappearing Trust
Protecting Your Estate Plan from Challenges: No-Contest Clause Explained
The Secret Child
Welcome to 'Splitting Heirs'
Today’s federal estate and gift tax laws may be remembered as the most generous to wealthy families since the Great Depression. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) doubled the federal estate, gift, and generation skipping...more
As the ball drops in Times Square on December 31, 2024, many of the tax breaks established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 will disappear. While the TCJA made some permanent tax cuts, a number of tax cuts and...more
Oh, the things you hear at cocktail parties: “Everyone should have a revocable trust,” “It’s easy to change your residence to Florida for tax purposes – just count days and get a Florida license,” “Make all your trusts...more
The federal estate tax exemption provisions are set to expire at the end of 2025, potentially requiring more people to pay estate taxes. In view of the uncertainty of the estate tax laws, it is important to have estate...more
The House Ways and Means Committee recently released its plan to pay for President Biden's proposed Build Back Better Act. Many of the changes to the Internal Revenue Code proposed by that plan would directly impact gift and...more
...The federal tax laws are certainly about to change. With the need to raise revenue as a top priority for the Biden Administration, everyone is expecting dramatic changes to the Internal Revenue Code. Tax legislation is...more
In this second blog post on the House Ways and Means Tax proposals, we address the proposed changes that will affect the taxation of trusts, estates, and retirement plans. As we discussed, on September 13, 2021, the...more
House Democrats recently released additional legislative proposals that, if passed, would affect several commonly used estate planning techniques. Among those proposals are three that would significantly impact some of the...more
Trust and estate planners are still catching their breath from the 2020 year-end and dealing with the wave of gifting transactions that many clients completed. It seems the ink is not dry on those December transactions and...more
- Annual inflation-indexing continues to increase the historically high lifetime exemption amount for gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. Those of considerable wealth who have not yet made gifts, such as...more
Peter, Paul, and Mary have done well for themselves. Each has a nice home, a seasonal residence, and a large IRA. Coincidentally, each also has an additional $11 million worth of real estate, savings, brokerage accounts, and...more
Don’t overlook foreign assets when planning your estate - You’d be surprised how often people fail to disclose foreign assets to their estate planning advisors. They assume that these assets aren’t relevant to their “U.S.”...more
Now or later - When’s the right time to transfer your wealth? - To gift or not to gift? It’s a deceptively complex question. The temporary doubling of the gift and estate tax exemption — to an inflation-adjusted...more
Generation-Skipping Transfer (GST) trusts have long been a popular estate tax planning tool used to defer transfer tax to a future generation. While the estate tax exemption is at a historical high, the GST tax exempt status...more
Late last year, the Joint Committee on Taxation published what is colloquially known as the “Blue Book” – the Committee’s explanation of recent changes in the tax law. While not considered as part of the law’s legislative...more
When the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed, significant changes were made to the Federal Estate, Gift and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax, the most prominent of which is the increased applicable exclusion amount, which...more
In a special session, the Maine legislature passed tax conformity legislation on August 30, 2018, after having failed to pass this legislation prior to its spring adjournment. The legislation is now on the Governor’s desk...more
After recent tax legislation, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, few tax shelters are left standing. One key exception is life insurance. This brief article details that, if certain requirements are met, the buildup of...more
The newly enacted U.S. tax law makes significant changes to provisions of the Internal Revenue Code affecting high net worth individuals, their investment entities and family offices. These changes are likely to spur gift...more
On December 22, 2017, the President signed a major change to federal tax law that contains many provisions affecting individuals, estates, and trusts. While the impetus behind the change was simplification, as some unnamed...more
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law new tax legislation (the “2017 Tax Bill”). The 2017 Tax Bill makes sweeping changes to the U.S. tax code, including a reduction in corporate tax rates, significant changes...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Act”) was signed into law by President Donald Trump on December 22, 2017. The Act changes many provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, from individual and business provisions, to...more
In 2016, we continued to experience a period of relative stability in our federal transfer tax system and have been able to plan without expecting imminent significant changes to the system. Under the American Taxpayer Relief...more
Gift giving made easy - Annual exclusion reduces your taxable estate - How can you reduce the size of your taxable estate? There are many ways to accomplish this objective, including the use of irrevocable trusts...more
In This Issue: - Alternate valuation date: Flexible postmortem planning a plus when markets are volatile - The write stuff: A letter of instructions - Making the most of your GST tax exemption - Estate...more