As April 15 quickly approaches, many of us are focused on income tax issues. With an estate tax exemption amount of over $5 million, income tax has become increasingly important for many clients and needs to be considered when devising an estate-planning strategy. As our Committee Report on Insurance illustrates, using insurance can help provide favorable income and estate tax results. In their article “Life Insurance After ATRA,” p. 64, Charles L. Ratner and Lawrence Brody explain how to use life insurance as a tax-advantaged investment, particularly for retirement. And, Mark A. Teitelbaum discusses using the cash value in life insurance to maximize retirement assets in “Maximizing Retirement Assets by Minimizing Losses,” p. 54. Rounding out our Committee Report, Rebecca R. Ryan and Richard L. Harris discuss premium financing in “Using Loans to Finance Life Insurance Premiums,” p. 49, and Melvin A. Warshaw covers the use of life insurance by non-resident aliens in “Use of U.S. Life Insurance Policies by Non-Resident Aliens,” p. 43.
Our issue this month also includes one of our most popular Special Reports—“Art, Auctions & Antiques.” This feature covers the varied issues that arise when art or other valuables are part of a client’s estate. These matters range from dealing with passion assets (for example, wine, watches and comic books), to figuring out how a copyright may become part of an estate plan if your client is an author or artist, to helping clients obtain and value Cuban art, given the recent developments in United States-Cuba relations.
And, for those of you who missed our webinar on family business succession last month and want to earn a CLE credit, you can still view that webinar on our website at http://tinyurl.com/os4spva.
