LEGALLY DELICATE AREA OF THE LAW This blog explored the topic of gun trusts in the past and it is high time to reexamine the matter in some more detail. While it is probably true that most people with a fairly sizable gun collection are hunters and gun enthusiasts, that…
529 ACCOUNTS Estate planning is the legal strategy by which one generation transfers wealth to the next, which involves an the use of various trusts and/or a will or even transferring money or items to corporations in an effort to legally and ethically reduce tax liability. One of the easiest…
GOOD FIT FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTORS If you are a real estate investor a land trust may be beneficial for you for several reasons. A land trust helps your business and serves as an estate planning tool. First, it helps you keep your real estate investments from becoming public knowledge. If you are…
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN ESTATE PLANNING This blog explored the generic topic of intellectual property in estate planning in the recent past, which is worth reading for a discussion on the larger topic. Estate planning for the artist or even the art collector is certainly related but worthy of its own…
MONEY LEFT IN IRA AT TIME OF PASSING NOT SUBJECT TO NORMAL IRA RULES This blog previously discussed the Supreme Court case of Clark v. Rameker and the legal implications of money remaining in an IRA at death, that is in turn left to the heirs of an estate. Putting…
NEW LAWS MEANS NEW RISK AND LEGAL OBLIGATIONS President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act on January 2, 2013 which permanently raised the estate tax exemption and added an inflation index, such that it rises every year to account for inflation. Better still, the same law allows…
GOVERNMENT HAS BEST AT HAND – FOR FREE Whenever a taxpayer submits tax documents that deal with a work of art or of cultural significance that is valued at least $50,000, according to the taxpayer’s own estimate, the IRS goes through a process by which it independently evaluates the items.…
ESTATE PLAN AND CONTINUATION OF FARM PLAN No doubt that anymore the running of a family farm is much like running a small business with other family members intimately involved. Often enough the continuation of the family farm requires that the current and main farmer, much like the ‘president and…
THE PROBLEM AND THE LAWS RESPONSE Sometimes when a person creates a trust they do not know all of the material facts, indeed cannot know all of the material facts regarding what is in the beneficiary’s best interest. Perhaps the trust expressly states that the beneficiaries cannot receive payment from…
PROBATE IS UNAVOIDABLE It is a fact of life that we can never plan for the worse case scenario and there is always risk in anything you do. The law recognizes this special risk, at least in part, in wrongful death lawsuits. In order for a wrongful death action to…