A hot topic in estate planning these days is whether mandatory arbitration clauses should be included in trusts. The idea is to require trust beneficiaries to arbitrate their disputes rather than going through the time and...more
No family is perfect. And while all litigation is emotional, our experience is that almost all trust and estate litigation is driven by underlying emotional disputes among family members. And death, like divorce, can open...more
As the budget crisis has unfolded, the tax community has been predicting that the IRS would get aggressive about imposing penalties in order to raise more revenue. And we are starting to see just that happen. The IRS has...more
Many people are making gifts before the end of 2012 to take advantage of the disappearing $5.12M gift tax exemption ($10.24M for a married couple). When figuring out the maximum amount that can be given, gifts from prior...more
In the recent opinion of Estate of John R.H. Thouron v. U.S. (DC PA 11/7/2012), the district court reminded fiduciaries that they remain responsible for filing returns and paying taxes despite getting bad advice from legal...more
With December 31st approaching quickly and the large $5,120,000 gift tax exemption disappearing, many clients are scrambling to make year-end gifts. Our advice has been to make every effort to get appraisals by the end of...more