Wealth Planning

Elder law experienced no cataclysms in 2008. But significant trends emerged and public benefits planning continued to mature. First, the good news: Medicaid asset protection is being extended, state by state, to same sex couples. Also, all states...

Steven J. Best, chief executive officer of Best Law Firm Solutions, has wisely observed that the recent economic hardships only increase the need to have electronic capabilities enhance efficiency. Best advised: Take heart that a sluggish economy...

Although assets are typically valued for federal estate tax purposes as of the date of death, Internal Revenue Code Section 2032(a) provides that, generally, if an estate elects, [i]n the case of property distributed, sold, exchanged, or otherwise...

Back in the summer,1 I warned that the financial markets were headed for serious problems. But even my worst fears pale in comparison to what actually happened: nothing less than a near-death experience for western finance. The markets survived...

Today's investment and political climate is causing a perceptible change in the way many clients approach the role of life insurance in their financial and estate planning. I see clients aggressively reassessing their life insurance needs, whether...

A recent Internal Revenue Service Chief Counsel Memorandum concluded that a trust could not claim a charitable income tax deduction after it had received taxable IRA distributions (that is, income in respect of a decedent or IRD)1 and then...

AIG, now majority owned by the U.S. government, is shopping around its indie b/d subsidiary, the AIG Advisor Group. But only a small number of reps affiliated with AIG’s b/d have decided to bail. Why?