So what exactly are fraud, fraudulent conveyance, deceit and fraudulent transfer and when are attorneys accountable? Being a trustee entails risk of personal liability. Being one of a number of trustees can increase the risk. In the legendary...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in July affirmed the Tax Court's findings in Strangi II that the bona fide sale exception to Internal Revenue Code Section 2036(a) didn't apply to transfers of assets to a family limited partnership ...

While President Bush and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were suffering scathing criticism for their slow response to the crisis Hurricane Katrina wrought on New Orleans and the Gulf region, the Internal Revenue Service and Congress were...

Advisors take note: Baby Boomers and their parents need to do some serious talking. According to a new study, Americans in their 70s are more at ease talking about estate-planning issues than people in their children's generation are. This is the...

Divorcing couples may run the risk of incurring gift tax liability if their attorneys do not draft their settlement agreements with an eye on Internal Revenue Code Section 2702's draconian valuation rules. Despite a recent plateau in divorce rates...

It's easy to forget that retired clients of relatively modest means can actually develop huge adverse tax consequences once they are forced to take minimum IRA distributions. But there are ways (albeit, somewhat complicated on first pass) to save...

When it comes to client-advisor communications about charitable giving, something is amiss. That, at least, is the conclusion of a survey conducted by The Philanthropic Initiative of Boston. The study found that half of all advisors say they...

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...

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...

The rapper Notorious B.I.G. had it right: The more money we come across, the more problems we see. If planning for wealthy people is daunting, planning for the ultra-rich those with net worth in excess of $50 million is exponentially more involved...