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'
El 18 de abril de 2024, FinCEN actualizó las preguntas frecuentes (“FAQs) que abordan los fideicomisos y el CTA (“Corporate Transparency Act”). Los fideicomisos son vehículos que pueden ayudar a preservar patrimonios y la...more
On April 18, 2024, FinCEN updated FAQs that address Trusts and the CTA (Corporate Transparency Act). Trusts are vehicles that can assist in the preservation of wealth and property for future generations, protect assets, or...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 provided major changes to the Internal Revenue Code, specifically doubling the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption (collectively, the exemption) from...more
Earlier this week the White House released its Fiscal Year 2025 Budget. Of course, the federal government has not yet adopted a budget for the Fiscal Year 2024 even as we approach that year’s halfway mark. But I digress. The...more
Trusts are described in multiple ways, including: living or testamentary, revocable or irrevocable and grantor or non-grantor. These terms are not always mutually exclusive. A trust can be living, revocable and a grantor...more
A trust structure, commonly used for estate planning, can be problematic in certain civil law jurisdictions, such as those in many European countries. Recent acts enacted in Wyoming and New Hampshire allow for the...more
The Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”), a set of new regulations being implemented by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), requires entities newly formed or registered to do business in the United States...more
Earlier this week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a retroactive tax on so-called “INGs” — Incomplete Gift Non-Grantor Trusts. Note that the law, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023, has some limitations in...more
Grantor trusts allow for tax deductions on income generated by trust assets whereas non-grantor trusts do not allow for these deductions. It is crucial for people to carefully decide which type of trust is best for their...more
April Interest Rates for GRATS, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split-Interest Charitable Trusts - The April Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs, QPRTs and...more
On March 20, 2023, Senators Warren, Sanders, Van Hollen, and Whitehouse addressed a letter to Treasury Secretary Yellen in which they urged Yellen “to use [her] existing authority to limit the ultra-wealthy’s abuse of trusts...more
According to a report issued by the National Association of Realtors a couple of days ago, last year saw a large outmigration of people from California and New York, while Florida and Texas experienced a comparably large...more
Some folks eagerly await the release of a new album. Others camp outside of big box retailers to get the jump on holiday gifts. There are those who line up at box offices to purchase tickets for a concert that is months away....more
The Key Person- The closely held corporation is often a fragile creature. Too often, its continued success and well-being are overly dependent upon the continued involvement of one individual – namely, the founder and...more
I recently encountered an interesting situation in which someone suggested that a grantor trust be decanted into a non-grantor trust before the end of the taxable year. The reason? To avoid the special interest charge that...more
Most of you know by now that I grew up in the Panama Canal Zone which no longer exists as of 1999. In that respect, the transition left me as a man without a country. My father (of blessed memory) when referring to kids...more
“Déjà vu All Over Again”- The White House last week released the President’s Budget for the Fiscal Year 2023. The Budget is ambitious, but its “investments,” we are told, “are more than paid for with tax reforms focused on...more
Last month, the House Ways & Means Committee (the "Committee") approved draft legislation (the “Legislation”) as part of Congress' ongoing $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation process. The Legislation includes significant tax...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
Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee released, and advanced out of committee, draft tax legislation intended to form a part of the Democratic budget reconciliation bill. At almost 900 pages in length, this draft...more
On Sunday, September 12, 2021, the House Ways & Means Committee (the "Committee") released draft legislation as part of Congress' ongoing $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation process. The legislation, as approved by 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
As a result of Governor Jay Inslee signing S.B. 5096 on May 4, 2021, Washington state will begin imposing a 7 percent tax on certain long-term capital gains beginning January 1, 2022. For a detailed overview of the new law,...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
Creating an education legacy - For many people, an important goal of estate planning is to leave a legacy for their children, grandchildren and future generations. And what better way to do that than to help provide for...more