Despite the economic recession, private foundations (PFs) led by individual donors and by families continue to form, grow and increase their grant making in one way or another. Indeed, a recent analysis of the giving patterns of 700 Foundation...
We're now entering the eighth month of 2010 a year in which we've had no estate tax. We're also facing possible legislation and uncertainty on other issues including the allowable terms and forms of grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) and the...
It can be difficult on a personal level to watch a client, whom you may have known for years, begin to lose his mental capacity. But if that client is the settlor of a revocable trust of which you are a trustee, the settlor's incompetence can...
The federal government recently has enacted several laws increasing the reporting obligations of both U.S. resident and non-resident taxpayers and imposing additional taxes and penalties on non-compliant taxpayers. But how can the Internal Revenue...
For decades, the United States had a top marginal tax rate as high as 50, 70 and even 90 percent.1 As a matter of fact, for the past 50 years there have only been five years (1988 to 1992) when the top marginal tax rate was less than the current...
Since Jan. 1, 2010, trustees and personal representatives have faced a new transfer tax landscape one filled with questions but very few answers. For this one year, the estate and generation skipping transfer (GST) taxes have been eliminated and a...
Unmarried partners don't enjoy the protections and benefits that are unique to marriage. For example, unmarried partners aren't entitled to an intestate share and don't have the statutory right to demand an elective share, as spouses do. Unmarried...
Is there such a thing as bulletproof asset protection against federal claims? Many estate planners say and advise their clients to use or rely on certain techniques and tools like state exemptions, tenancy-by-the-entirety property rights, limited...
Some attorneys are working feverishly to get clients’ assets into a specialized trust before proposed federal legislation eliminates the provisions that have made it so popular as a means of significantly reducing taxes.
In May 1976, radio broadcaster Paul Harvey began a series of five-minute vignettes entitled The Rest of the Story. It was so popular that it continued until his death in 2009 a span of 33 years! He would recite what everyone and then (after a...
