Fewer estates are now subject to federal estate taxes, thanks to the $5 million federal estate tax exemption. Internal Revenue Service data indicates that only 8,239 estates larger than $5 million filed a federal estate tax return in 2009, the...
The field of asset protection is often stigmatized. The phrase may inspire thoughts of deadbeats, scam artists, and tax evaders.1 However, the concept has become common and refers to nothing more than the process of an individual or family...
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 rate and $5 million estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption.1 How...
Estate planning practitioners regularly include some form of withdrawal rights in irrevocable trusts, exercisable with respect to a specific amount and for a limited period of time, to enable the trust's donor to use his Internal Revenue Code...
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 that tax advantages phased in over the subsequent 10 years would be eliminated at the end of...
The sales rumors have died down, and U.S. Trust president Keith Banks can breathe easier after coming off a very good month. Bank of America Merrill Lynch was named the world’s leading wealth manager with nearly $2 trillion in assets by...
When planning for charitable gifts, especially those accomplished using strategies that result in the gifts unfolding over an extended time, donors and those advising them need to consider the possibility that the rules on how those gifts are...
Many charitably inclined clients abstained from making significant outright donations to charity or creating or funding charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) during the recent economic and tax law uncertainty. They still may be reluctant to donate...
