7 Major Errors in Estate Planning – A Financial Advisor’s View
These days, access to estate planning counsel and financial advisors is no longer restricted to the very rich. (Well, there was never actually an exclusive club of rich folks who kept the secret rituals secret, but it used to cost a lot more than it does today. And in the good old days, only the […]
Congress Procrastinates Again on Tax-Free Charitable IRA Rollovers
Once again, a special provision of the Tax Code offering older owners of individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) an advantageous way to make charitable donations, is scheduled to expire on December 31. For the remainder of 2013, a traditional IRA owner, age 70½ or over, may transfer directly, tax-free, up to $100,000 per year to an […]
Tax-Free IRA Charitable Rollovers Reinstated by American Taxpayer Relief Act (“ATRA”)
From 2006 through 2011, individuals age 70-1/2 or older were eligible to make donations of up to $100,000 directly from their individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to benefit public charities. Although they received no charitable deduction for such transfers, they didn’t have to report the distribution as taxable income, either. Result: zero tax. And, such a […]
Consider “Front-Loading” Your Life Insurance Trust Contributions
A proposal that first appeared in the Obama administration’s failed 2012 budget proposal sought to override existing state laws and limit the terms of cascading or “dynasty” trusts to 90 years. This proposal didn’t make it into law, but might resurface again in a future Democratic administration or congress. Frontload your irrecovable life insurance trustAlthough […]
Virginia Trust & Estate Law Recodification Charts (For Attorneys and Advisors)
Effective October 1, 2012, Virginia has reorganized and renumbered its statutes relating to wills, estates, trusts, fiduciary powers, fiduciary responsibilities, and related topics in an attempt to put everything (more or less) in one Article of the Code, so that attorneys and advisors will not need to skip so often between different Articles, Chapters, and […]
Why Copyrights and Trusts Don’t Always Mix Well
Here’s a recent article of mine about the estate planning aspects of transferring copyrights to literary and artistic works. I wrote it for a readership of trusts & estates lawyers, CPAs, and financial planners who get questions about copyrights, making gifts of them during life and at death, and how the heirs of authors and […]
How Estate Taxes Hurt the Poor
Over the years, many clients have walked into my office with the goal (usually among several others) of eliminating, or at least minimizing, their family’s exposure to estate taxes. And I’ve been pleased to help them do that (and to charge reasonable fees for my help). But although minimizing estate taxes is important, it’s not […]
How Low Interest Rates Can Cut Your Tax Bill
I often point out tax-saving opportunities created by our current low interest rates, and an October 1, 2011 Wall Street Journal article does a nice job of making the point again. In How Low Rates Can Cut Your Tax Bill, Tax Report columnist Laura Saunders points out that our current low interest rates (a Section […]