One of the frequent topics around these parts involves the estate tax. There is nothing new here: taxes on the transfers of wealth date back to ancient Egypt. Pyramids don’t come cheap. And Caesar Augustus taxed transfers on death, though he made an exception for transfers between certain close family members. These taxes can have […]
Often, when establishing a trust, rather than giving them a lump sum, it is desirable to have the trust make payments to one person for a period of time (called a “lifetime beneficiary” or a “payment beneficiary”), setting up a guaranteed income stream, and then after that to give what is left to another person […]
Often, when establishing a trust, it is desirable to have the trust make payments to one person for a period of time (called a “lifetime beneficiary” or a “payment beneficiary”) and then after that to give what is left to another person (called a “remainder beneficiary”). Two common examples: make payments to my spouse for […]
We frequently run into situations where someone wants to loan money to a family member (or has already done it). Often, the idea of charging interest is distasteful to them. This is—after all—family. It probably will not surprise you to find out that the IRS has ideas about this, and that they are happy to […]
First some background: All trusts begin with three plates at the table. There is a Trustor (or Grantor), who is the person forming the trust by transferring property to a Trustee (and hopefully signing a well-drafted Trust Agreement). So there is also a Trustee, who is in charge of managing the property and carrying out […]
Retirement plan assets have become a major factor in the USA, amounting to approximately $23 trillion as of the end of 2013. Many individuals and estate plans use IRA accounts and other retirement funds as an integral part of succession planning. And such a big chunk of funds is always going to be a target. […]
Naming a trust as the designated beneficiary of a your IRA has several very important advantages over directly naming the beneficiaries. First, your chosen beneficiary may be a minor, not prudent with money, have marital or creditor issues, or may be disabled. Second, if the beneficiary dies before distribution, the contingent beneficiaries may not be […]
For every trust there is a trustee (at least one). The trustee is the one who manages the assets. Whether the trust is small or large, we have learned at least one thing after hundreds of years of using trusts: Some trustees cannot be trusted. Sometimes this is clear from the beginning, other times it […]
So I am sitting at my desk working when Sonny and Cher’s The Beat Goes On comes on Pandora. Cool… And as music has a way of doing, I am instantly launched back in time to the early 70’s, for me a simpler time. If I remember correctly, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour was […]
For a long time revocable living trusts were touted as a way that married couples could pass more property free of estate tax. Some of this was unscrupulous, hucksters in the smoke-filled back room of a bar hocking estate plans out of a box, and all of that. But some of it was legitimate, because […]