Nonprofits, especially those operating or fundraising in multiple states, are under a great deal of pressure these days to maintain compliance with both federal and state regulations. Much of that pressure is fallout from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of...

Andrew M. Katzenstein, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, reports: Changes proposed to regulations (Treasury Regulations Sections 1.72 and 1.1001-1(j)) governing the income taxation of private annuity sales...

Act quickly.  This year and next, there’s a chance for people who are at least 70½ years old to donate funds from their individual retirement accounts (IRAs) directly to charities without incurring income tax on the donation.

Now that Democrats have swept into Congress, what does this mean for your high-net-worth clients? It’s hard to say, but if the party’s six-point agenda is any indication (which called for everything from “better American jobs and...

In recent years, asset protection planning has won its rightful place as a legitimate specialty, aimed at curtailing the reach of potential, future creditors. Of course, there are still those who believe that it's wrong to ensure against the...

Although the grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) is an excellent estate-planning technique, it can be complicated to create, depending upon the client and assets involved. Hard-to-move assets can mean problems. Questions about when the GRAT is...

David T. Leibell and Daniel L. Daniels, partners in the Stamford, Conn. office of Cummings & Lockwood LLC, report that a recently released Technical Advice Memorandum (TAM) provides a lovely roadmap on how not to administer a charitable remainder...

Offshore planning has gotten a lot of bad press lately.1 It's getting slammed in the U.S. Senate. This August, a Senate subcommittee held a week-long hearing on its report, Tax Haven Abuses: The Enablers, the Tools and Secrecy2 that purported to...

In The Curmudgeon's Guide To Practicing Law, author Mark Herrmann points out that You cannot answer a legal question without knowing the context in which it is posed. You must therefore be sure to understand the context of all the work that you...

Perhaps no estate-planning tool is more subject to the law of unintended consequences than the ubiquitous Crummey1 power. But, although there can be estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax consequences, it's the income tax impact...