On Dec. 17, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the Act). Among other things, the Act makes changes in the tax law for calendar years 2011 and 2012 that: (1)...
The bypass trust, also known as the credit shelter trust, the family trust and the trust, has been the foundation of estate planning for married couples since before I started practicing law. Prior to 2011, such a trust was necessary to ensure...
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010,1 among other things, ended the nail-biting uncertainty about the estate tax thresholds for 2011. (For more information, see New Rates, New Exemptions, New...
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PWC) has released its second global family business survey in November 2010, Kin in the Game, available online at www.pwc.com. In 2007, when PWC completed its first survey, there were few signs of the financial crisis...
Waiting for Godot is a classic play in which the protagonists await the arrival of a mysterious problem solver who never arrives. For estate planners and valuation professionals, 2010 was similarly a time for waiting — for tax law resolutions, for...
“We’ll probably see, especially now, clients less interested in investments and more interested in managing cash.So [software] solutions that do more than just spit out an investment [idea], but also a debt management and emergency...
American society has long been defined by an intricate and unique combination of the roles of government, business and the non-profit sector. Other cultures exist with most, if not all, of their society's needs met by business and government...
Life insurance is unique among types of insurance in that it insures against an event (death) that will occur as opposed to an event that may occur. But, although death is a certainty, individuals buy life insurance to hedge against the time when...
Charitable lead annuity trusts (CLATs) have received considerable attention recently, in light of current low interest rates. If structured correctly, CLATs have the twin benefits of (1) providing payments to charity for a number of years, and (2)...
Like you, I always knew non-tax issues in estate planning were important. But I never realized how important. With the chaos in 2010 on the tax side of estate planning and the virtual inability to offer certainty, coupled with the high cost of...
