The 2001 tax reform act built uncertainty into the estate-planning process. Under the act, estate tax rates decrease until 2009. The estate tax disappears for one year in 2010. In 2011, the rates and exemptions revert to 2001 levels. Adding to the...
Under several Internal Revenue Code sections, the property a person transfers will remain in his gross estate if he retains certain rights or powers over it. There is is an exception for transfers made for a bona fide sale for an adequate and full...
The qualified personal residence trust, or QPRT,1 has faded in popularity due to declining interest rates (lower interest rates make QPRTs more expensive), stock market losses (which make clients less rich), and the prospect of estate tax repeal ...
Estate planners are finding the revocable living trust (RLT) to be an increasingly popular and useful tool. Some, however, are guilty of overstating the benefits of the RLT, and this can confuse clients and lead to some embracing RLTs for the...
Estate taxes may be the bane of wealthy families, but they are a boon for wealth managers because clients need their help with trusts, gifts and investment vehicles that minimize the impact of estate taxes. So the Bush Administration's proposal to...
It'd be easy to write off 2004 as a year of much talk and little action when it comes to trusts and estates law easy, but misleading. While it's true that Congress failed to enact estate tax legislation, a major tax law it did pass, the...
The implications of a case handed two years ago have not been adequately appreciated by practitioners. The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Oct. 16, 2002, affirmed a decision of the Tax Court denying an estate tax deduction for a...
Although he played Superman on the silver screen, it was after Christopher Reeve broke his neck and became paralyzed in 1995 at age 42 in a horseback riding accident, that he became a symbol of courage and hope to the world. Against the odds...
This letter is in reaction to the article A Threat to All SNTs by Mark Merrick and Douglas W. Stein, which appeared in Trusts & Estates' November 2004 issue. The thrust of their article is that the passage of the Uniform Trust Code will cripple...
Of course, no one knows for sure what will happen to the federal estate tax. And it may happen, because of surprising developments this December in the Senate, that the repeal will actually take place. Sixty Senators now seem to be saying they'll...
