Note From The Editor July 2012Note From The Editor July 2012
Sometimes, one Tax Court case can have a broad impact on various aspects of estate planning. This month’s issue includes two articles on just such a case, Turner v. Commissioner. In “Fixing Crummey Problems” (p. 23), Kristin T. Abati and William A. Lowell discuss what Turner says about which gifts to trusts are present interests that qualify for the annual exclusion. And, in “Turn(er)ing the Tables on Taxpayers” (p. 18), Stephanie Loomis-Price and N. Todd Angkatavanich focus on the supplemental opinion in Turner, which deals with the IRS’ most recent attack on partnerships—the marital deduction mismatch.
Our issue this month also includes articles highlighting uses for insurance in sophisticated estate tax planning. In their article, “Buying Life Insurance to Fund Estate Taxes” (p. 27), Jonathan G. Blatttmachr and Marc A. Pasquale present an alternative approach for using life insurance as a tool to pay estate taxes. Gerald R. Nowotny’s article, “Frozen Cash Value Life Insurance,” discusses the use of this tool as part of integrated income and estate tax planning. And, in “Partial Tax-free Exchanges,” John T. Bannen and Kristin A. Occhetti explain how the new partial tax-free exchange rules allow taxpayers to access cash values from existing life insurance and annuity contracts to pay for long-term care coverage on a tax-free basis. Rounding out this month’s issue is “Change in Trustees”
(p. 52), by Sophia Harris, which gives the international view of what happens when one trustee retires and another fiduciary takes over.
And not to disappoint those who look forward to it, we have our biannual Special Report: “Review of Reviews: the Busy Practitioner’s Guide to Student-edited Law Journals.” This time, we cover topics ranging from Bob Marley to the Oscars. Fascinating reads, for sure.
