How does a blind man sign his will? One of the most famous blind men the singer, pianist and composer Ray Charles had his manager, Joe Adams, a longtime friend and the executor of his will, sign his signature for him in front of two subscribing...
Most estate planners know the three basic elements of a trust: a trustee, a corpus, and one or more beneficiaries. Many commentators regard the presence of a beneficiary as the most important element, because without a beneficiary there would be...
Practitioners argue about what the income tax consequences are if the seller in an IDIT transaction1 (Installment Sale to an Intentionally Defective Grantor Irrevocable Trust) dies before the note is paid off. Some commentators believe that this...
Buried within many of the boilerplate financial planning questionnaires used by advisors is an innocuous little line that says something like, Any expected inheritances? There's a reason the question is not featured more prominently. Taxes, health...
Collectibles such as art, antiques, jewelry, stamps, coins and automobiles can constitute a significant portion of the estate of a wealthy individual. Often and unfortunately advisors fail to focus adequate attention on planning for these...
As T&E was going to press, the wealth management community was buzzing with reports that Republican and Democratic Senators were working on new estate tax reforms. Kristen French, reporter for T&E 's sister publication, Registered Rep...
Circular 230,1 the Internal Revenue Service's pronouncement regulating written tax advice, applies to all tax practitioners, including estate planners like me much as I might wish it affected only nefarious sellers of dubious tax shelters. Here is...
Stock in a closely held business can be the dominant asset of a married business owner. Therefore, if the owner gets divorced, the business is often the largest portion of the marital estate and the most vulnerable. Divorcing clients already have...
H. Amos Goodall, Jr., author of the May issue's The Death Tax Is a Good Thing, is dead wrong to oppose a permanent repeal of the estate tax. For the fourth time in as many years, the House of Representatives on April 13 did exactly the right thing...
David T. Leibell and Daniel L. Daniels of Cummings & Lockwood LLC in Stamford, Conn., have this report: Momentum is building to gut the Type III supporting organization. Supporting organizations in general and Type IIIs in particular were bashed...