Wealth Planning

With a traditional deferred gift annuity, guaranteed annuity payments are made to a donor and/or another individual for life, starting at a specified date more than one year from the donor's transfer to the charity. Typically, a donor who has...

Susan Sontag social commentator, critic, activist and acclaimed writer executed her last will and testament six months before she died on Dec. 28, 2004 at age 71. Her death, reportedly from complications of acute myelogenous leukemia, concluded a...

Special needs trusts (SNTs) trusts created for the benefit of a disabled beneficiary present exciting opportunities for corporate fiduciaries. They also risk sapping fiduciaries' time and emotional energy. Sometimes, the wisest choice is for a...

With just two revenue rulings, the Internal Revenue Service established the 5 percent exhaustion rule, which essentially says that if there is a more than 5 percent possibility that a charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT) will run out of...

From David A. Handler of Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago we have this report on the latest development in the Tax Court's understanding of the Internal Revenue Code Section 2036(a): On March 15, the court issued a decision in Estate of Wayne C...

Planners have a challenge: They must find sophisticated, highly tax-efficient techniques that weave family values into financial plans but don't land clients in audit hell. Enter the health and education exclusion trust (HEET). This type of trust...

According to a recent AARP survey of baby boomers, four out of five members of that generation plan on working after they retire from their jobs. Some will do so out of necessity to make up a shortfall in savings, for instance, or to patch...

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...