Gone To Texas!
As of July 31, 2022, I have closed my Virginia office and moved to the Texas Hill Country. This means that I won’t be taking on any new Virginia clients. Existing Virginia clients can still call, email, or text me for support, questions, emailed copies of your documents, and the like, and I’ll continue to […]
Your Estate Plan, Your Trusts, and Your Retirement Accounts
You should read this excellent short column by financial writer Arden Dale of The Wall Street Journal, “Minding Retirement Accounts in Estate Plans,” on integrating IRAs, 401(k) plans, federal employee Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) accounts, and similar retirement savings accounts into estate and trust plans. The article deals primarily with choosing primary beneficiaries in a […]
Sure Enough, Congress Took Away Your Kids’ Stretch IRAs
On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the “Secure Act,” which eliminated the benefits of “Stretch IRAs” for non-spouse beneficiaries of IRAs, 401Ks, Thrift Savings Plans, and other qualified retirement plans. Today, rather than being able to stretch annual required minimum distributions (RMDs) over their projected lifespans, nonspouse beneficiaries of inherited IRAs will […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]