Residuary bequests to private foundations are a common form of charitable giving. Typically, a testator's will provides for certain bequests to individuals, and designates a private foundation as a beneficiary of all or a portion of his residuary...
Retirement benefits are typically left to the participant's surviving spouse with the expectation that she1 will do something with them: either roll the benefits over to her own retirement plan to continue maximum income tax deferral, or disclaim...
Several recent fiduciary cases have results as unexpected as the ending of an O'Henry short story. A Pennsylvania trustee in a case called Sky Trust1 diversified the assets of a trust out of the trustees' own stock and was surcharged for its...
Cash value life insurance through its tax-deferred growth of the cash value, tax-free access to that cash value and a tax-free death benefit can provide tax-sensitive investors with benefits that include income tax deferral, conversion and...
Only a minority of clients seem to be aware of the need to protect accumulated tax-qualified retirement benefits1 from potential future creditors. In my practice, it's often older physicians who want to make asset protection a centerpiece of their...
In the article DAF Kickbacks, (July 2005), author Bruce B. Makous claims that asset-retention arrangements involving sales commissions/incentives for donor-advised funds are common practice. The National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG) the...
People who are too wealthy to qualify for either a deductible individual retirement account (IRA) or a Roth IRA have the option of contributing to a non-deductible IRA. Assuming they meet the basic criteria to contribute to an IRA,1 they can...
Much has been written about the intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT). Transfers to an IDGT are completed gifts for gift tax purposes; and the IDGT is not included in the grantor's estate for estate tax purposes. The IDGT is treated as a...
VANGUARD HAS LONG BEEN A RIVAL to advisors and brokers with its no-load, low-cost, direct-to-investors business strategy. Three decades ago, the firm's straight-talking founder, John Bogle reckoned not only that professional money managers couldn...
The SEC recently charged a pair of pump-and-dumpers whose worst offense might be their poor impersonation of a stockbroker. The defendants in the case faxed handwritten stock tips, ostensibly from a financial advisor to his client (Dr. Mitchel)...
