Litigation Archive
A Glimpse Into the Future
Does anyone out there have a crystal ball to see what if anything Congress will do with transfer tax legislation as 2012 draws to a close? Like you, we're...
Adapting to Changing Circumstances
Uncertainty surrounding the estate and gift tax laws has created significant challenges for the estate-planning community. Reasonable minds may differ...
The Wandry Quandary
The Tax Court's March 26, 2012 memorandum decision in Wandry v. Commissioner1 is monumental for defined value clause (DVC) planning. Donors should now...
Discussing Gifting With Clients
The estate tax exclusion the amount of the gross estate free of any tax payment1 has increased to $5.12 million per person during 2012 and is scheduled...
Trust Planning in 2012 and Beyond
Estate planning is certainly interesting during these times of legislative, political, fiscal, tax and economic uncertainty. The current gift and generation-skipping...
Gridlock Reigns Supreme
It's clear to me that no changes will be made to federal transfer tax laws this year. As we're all aware, the 112th Congress agrees on very little. It...
Estate Planning for Negative Capital
Clients with long-term real estate holdings often have negative capital, which results from cashing out with refinancings and from depreciation. The body...
Using Lifetime Exemptions Today
By now, most of our clients are aware of the current historic opportunity to transfer significant wealth to their heirs free of gift taxes. Not since...
Beware of the Reciprocal Trust Doctrine
Many clients are planning to make large gifts before the end of 2012, to take advantage of what may be a fleeting opportunity to do so without incurring...
The State of the States
While federal law remains in flux on numerous fronts, there's been a flurry of state-level developments on a number of topics. Here's an overview of some...
Practical Planning With Self-Canceling Installment Notes
Self-canceling installment notes (SCINs) are often discussed, but rarely used by our clients, until now. A SCIN involves the sale of an asset (for example,...
Introducing Clients to Financial Therapy
Sooner or later, we, as estate-planning professionals, are exposed to the frustration of clients or beneficiaries who ignore our advice and act in a manner...
BDITs and BDON'Ts
As clients, attorneys and advisors were just getting comfortable with the beneficiary defective inheritor's trust (BDIT), certain practitioners have attempted...
UNIFORM LAW UPDATE
Since 1892, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) has provided states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation. The ULC is working on...
Expect the Unexpected
When attorneys draft trust documents, it's important to include maximum flexibility mechanisms to better respond to future tax, societal and beneficiary...
A Touchy Dilemma
What should an estate-planning attorney do when a client comes to her office to discuss an estate plan that's out of line with what the attorney would...
Legal Gaga
Ultra high-net-worth entertainers, film and television personalities and professional athletes (celebrities) require specialized estate and asset protection...
The Role of a Care Manager
The typical participants in an estate-planning team include the attorney, certified public accountant (CPA), insurance consultant and wealth manager....
Emerging Directed Trust Company Model
Much has been written about modern multi-participant trust governance structures (sometimes called open-architecture trust designs) and evolving principles...
The Perfect Storm
I hesitate to write an article containing hyperbole. Whenever I read something that contains terms such as unheard of, or my immediate, admittedly cynical,...
Best Practices for Scriveners
Lawyers drafting wills and trusts must regularly contemplate age-old issues such as ademption, advancement and lapse, as well as more recent issues such...
Tax Law Update
Inflation adjustments published The Internal Revenue Service published the 2012 inflation adjustments in Revenue Procedure 2011-52. The unified credit...
Step-Transaction Doctrine Compliance
With the lifetime gift tax exemption at $5 million and the gift tax rate at 35 percent, now's a perfect time for taxpayers to take advantage of wealth...
The Quarterback Dilemma
Estate plans originate in a number of ways, but in every one, early on in the process, the client interacts with at least one estate planner who may be...
With This Ring I Thee Tax
On June 24, 2011, 42 years after the gay rights movement began with the Stonewall Riots in New York City, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed the Marriage...
A Gift From Above: Estate Planning On a Higher Plane
Generally, most clients want the same thing: control, use and enjoyment of their assets until death and protection of their assets from potential claimants....
Avoid Erroneous Assumptions: Ask First, Draft Later
The best plans and intentions can be led astray by misconceptions based on erroneous assumptions, especially with philanthropic succession planning. Often,...
Where Do You Live?
State governments are, more than ever, struggling to meet budget deficits. But state legislators often find that raising taxes and cutting programs aren't...
Set It, But Don't Forget It
Perhaps it's a matter of managing expectations and responsibilities between attorneys and clients about who will have the ongoing responsibility to ensure...
State Death Tax Planning
Once upon a time, estate planners focused almost exclusively on the federal tax implications of their planning for clients. State1 death taxes, which...
Estate Administration in Cyberspace
Until just a few years ago, an estate executor on the hunt for important documents might find them in a filing cabinet at a decedent's home or in a safety...
Helping Clients Reach Their Great Digital Beyond
We've all done just that, probably more often than we should admit. On the way to getting started with a new social media or online service, most of us...
Giving Crummey Notices: Best Practices
Estate planning practitioners regularly include some form of withdrawal rights in irrevocable trusts, exercisable with respect to a specific amount and...
Making Two Years Last a Lifetime
The sweeping federal tax legislation enacted in 2001 was a boon for many, but it also created a thorny issue for estate tax planning. The law provided...
Transfer of Interest in FLPs
Fewer estates are now subject to federal estate taxes, thanks to the $5 million federal estate tax exemption. Internal Revenue Service data indicates...
The TEA Factor
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (TRA 2010) has been described as an estate planning with its 35 percent...
Individuals With Special Needs
Although the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 reduced the importance of estate tax planning for many, it...
Charitable Remainder Trusts Revisited
Many charitably inclined clients abstained from making significant outright donations to charity or creating or funding charitable remainder trusts (CRTs)...
Driving Miss Daisy
How do we deal with a client's diminishing capabilities? We need to encourage families to engage in important discussions about allowing an agent to determine...
Restorative Payments
In March 2009, Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty to federal charges involving a Ponzi scheme....
When There's a QPRT and GRAT
At our firm, we're facing an unusual situation concerning a client who died in 2010 during the term of a qualified personal residence trust and a grantor retained annuity trust....
A Time of Change
A recent headline in The Chronicle of Philanthropy tells the story: Recession's Hard Lessons Lead to Changes in Endowment Policies: The bulls may be back in control on Wall Street, but the painful lessons that endowment managers endured just a year ago are leading to a number of changes that affect how the funds are managed....
State Premium Tax Planning
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (2010 Tax Act) brought about an increase in the gift, estate and generation-skipping...
Making the Election or Not
The challenges of dealing with the choice of tax regimes for 2010 decedents can approach you from many fronts....
A Two-phased Approach
Whenever a client comes to us after the death of a loved one, particularly in the case of a surviving spouse, he's typically quite overwhelmed. ...
When Electing Out Makes Sense
Our company, Fiduciary Trust Company International, was appointed executor of an estate of a client who died in 2010. ...
Making a Gift and Keeping it Too
The dust is slowly settling after the enactment of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the 2010 Tax Act)....
Preferred Partnership Freezes
Preferred partnerships (Pps) are very useful and versatile estate planning vehicles that have been around for decades, yet still appear to fly under the...
Taking a Little Off The Table
An astonishing 93 percent of family business owners depend on the family business as their primary source of income, according to the 2007 Laird Norton...
Planning for Multi-generational Trusts
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the 2010 Tax Act) creates significantly more multi-generational trust...
A Balanced Solution
When we recommend ways for our clients to reduce their estates, we're mindful that clients generally want a comfortable cushion for retirement. But, providing...
The Changing Face of American Wealth
In 2008, the generation had just begun to enter retirement when the great recession intervened, postponing plans for many, shattering dreams for some...
Unintended Consequences
The passage of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the 2010 Tax Relief Act) has opened an unexpected...
Life Insurance Planning After the 2010 Tax Act
The Dec. 17, 2010 enactment of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (2010 Tax Act) added the concept of...
Insurance Policy Management
Among other perplexing issues facing clients these days is what to do with life insurance policies that are calling out for attention, sometimes very...
The 2010 Tax Act Election
Taxes are a contentious political issue. Elections for positions from county supervisor to the United States president have been won or lost on promises...
Valuation Clauses
Since 2006, taxpayers have won three significant victories related to valuation clauses. Numerous articles have been written on McCord,1 Christiansen2...
Death and Damages Can Be Taxing
You may have clients who are plaintiffs in a wrongful death or survival lawsuit (based on another's death) or in a lawsuit stemming from their own personal...
A Symbiotic Relationship
Much of the wealth being transferred in the United States today is in the form of highly appreciated illiquid assets: family businesses, closely held...
Health, Education, Maintenance and Support
Health, Education, Maintenance and Support: the four chosen words that make up the ascertainable standard. Sometimes abbreviated as HEMS, the ascertainable...
The State of Estate Planning
On Dec. 17, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the Act). The Act...
Collaboration From the Family Office Perspective
For those of us in the business of providing client services, success is heavily dependent on our ability to offer the most comprehensive, cutting-edge...
A Two-year Income Tax Reprieve
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010,1 among other things, ended the nail-biting uncertainty about the...
Bypass the Bypass Trust?
The bypass trust, also known as the credit shelter trust, the family trust and the trust, has been the foundation of estate planning for married couples...
Despite Some Bumps, Firms Have Survived and Even Prospered
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PWC) has released its second global family business survey in November 2010, Kin in the Game, available online at www.pwc.com....
New Rates, New Exemptions, New Gifting Opportunities
On Dec. 17, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the Act). Among...
The Waiting Game
Waiting for Godot is a classic play in which the protagonists await the arrival of a mysterious problem solver who never arrives. For estate planners...
In Defense of Multi-generational Trusts
While multi-generational trusts have been used in the United States for many decades, they gained more notoriety when Congress passed the generation-skipping...
Non-tax Issues in Estate Planning
Like you, I always knew non-tax issues in estate planning were important. But I never realized how important. With the chaos in 2010 on the tax side of...
The Battle For the Charitable Tax Deduction
American society has long been defined by an intricate and unique combination of the roles of government, business and the non-profit sector. Other cultures...
Staying Out of Reach
When asset protection planning was in its infancy in the mid-80s, there were few developments and even fewer mentions in the estate-planning literature....
Managing CLAT Investments
Charitable lead annuity trusts (CLATs) have received considerable attention recently, in light of current low interest rates. If structured correctly,...
MLPs: The Latest Trends
Over the past few years, financial advisors, estate planners and investors seeking a source of regular income have become increasingly aware of the benefits...
Maximizing the Benefits of FLPs
Limited partners (LPs) of family limited partnerships (FLPs) have long been a powerful estate-planning tool. LPs of FLPs can take a discount of as much...
Family Business Succession Planning
The United States is on the threshold of a major demographic shift. The post-war baby boom generation a group of some 78 million Americans has arrived...
Securities Laws and Estate Planning: Where Do the Roads Cross?
If you're an estate planner, you're probably not an expert in securities laws. But you may have clients who are of publicly held companies or who own...
Business Succession as an Evolutionary Process
Most family business succession studies focus narrowly on the succession event itself or on some of the changes in leadership and performance that occur...
Going Non-Vertical With Fund Interests
The vagaries and draconian nature of Internal Revenue Code Section 2701 have understandably led to widespread deference to the vertical slice rule. ...
As Good As It Gets
This year may offer a rare opportunity to transfer wealth efficiently by making taxable gifts, particularly to grandchildren. We've previously shown that...
European Harmonization
Every country1 in the European Union (EU) has its own laws and traditions for inheritances. This presents a problem when someone dies with assets in more...
Bringing It Home
Planning for an existing foreign non-grantor trust that has one or more U.S. beneficiaries presents complex challenges for trustees and professional advisors....
When the Dust Settles
Federal uncertainty about the estate tax and GST tax causes a ripple effect on state tax regimes....
GRAT Expectations
Somewhere in a bleak house in Washington, D.C.a plot exists. The conspirators are working against a favorite planning tool, the grantor retained annuity...
Family Capital Planning and Captive Risk Management
Well Georgia Sam he had a bloody noseWelfare Department they wouldn't give him no clothesHe asked poor Howard where can I goHoward said there's only one...
Grant Making Isn't the Only Way
Despite the economic recession, private foundations (PFs) led by individual donors and by families continue to form, grow and increase their grant making...
Scratching Your Head Over 2010 Estate Plans?
We're now entering the eighth month of 2010 a year in which we've had no estate tax. We're also facing possible legislation and uncertainty on other issues...
An Adviser's Guide for Reviewing Life Insurance
Once issued, a life insurance policy can remain in effect for decades. During this time, the original owner's goal and objectives may have changed, or...
Estate Planning for Unmarried Partners: Detriment or Opportunity?
Unmarried partners don't enjoy the protections and benefits that are unique to marriage. For example, unmarried partners aren't entitled to an intestate...
New IRS Holistic Audit Program
The federal government recently has enacted several laws increasing the reporting obligations of both U.S. resident and non-resident taxpayers and imposing...
The 2010 Landscape for Fiduciaries
Since Jan. 1, 2010, trustees and personal representatives have faced a new transfer tax landscape one filled with questions but very few answers. For...
Beware of Federal Super Creditors
Is there such a thing as bulletproof asset protection against federal claims? Many estate planners say and advise their clients to use or rely on certain...
Investment and Tax Strategies for A Changing Environment
For decades, the United States had a top marginal tax rate as high as 50, 70 and even 90 percent.1 As a matter of fact, for the past 50 years there have...
Settlor Incompetence and The Trustee's Quandary
It can be difficult on a personal level to watch a client, whom you may have known for years, begin to lose his mental capacity. But if that client is...
Black Shirts (Black, Shurtz) and the Marital Deduction Mismatch
In the ongoing family limited partnership (FLP) battle between taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service, taxpayers have been able to achieve some significant...
The Future of Estate Planning
In May 1976, radio broadcaster Paul Harvey began a series of five-minute vignettes entitled The Rest of the Story. It was so popular that it continued...
I Do, Act II
Estate planning in the context of second marriages is increasingly common and necessary in the evolving world in which we practice. Estate-planning techniques...
The Passive Activity Loss Rules
Estate planners often must make a decision whether to recommend a family limited partnership (FLP) or family limited liability company (FLLC) to achieve...
No Train Wreck, Now What?
Despite the dire economic prospects of 2008-2009 and many families' fears that they'd have to shut down their single family offices (SFOs), the train...
Pre-liquidity Planning
It has been 18 months since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and just over a year since the stock market touched its lows. Although the stock market has...
Chase Away IRA Spousal Rollover Demons
When IRA custodians get nervous, they often need a private letter ruling to calm them down and tell them that what they're doing or planning to do is...
