New York Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

In 1974, the Individual Retirement Account (IRA) was born, and since its inception more than 43 million Americans have created at least one IRA account for their retirement savings. Over the years the IRA has transformed greatly and has the potential to continue to evolve over the coming years. In fact, the IRA today bears almost no resemblance to the retirement vehicle that was created forty years ago.

Brief History of the IRA

When the IRA was first introduced in 1974, it was only available to employees who were not already sponsored by employer plans. The maximum contribution per year was only $1,500, and 401(k) plans did not yet exist. In 1981, the IRA saw a massive increase in the number of accounts when a new tax law let anyone under the age of 70.5 years old contribute as well as increased the annual maximum amount of contribution to $2,000.

The sales of firearms in the United States is rising, and for people who want to pass on their collection of guns to the next generation, estate planning has been particularly difficult. However, with the advent of the “gun trust” there is now a way to ensure that your collection is passed safely and to the correct beneficiaries. The gun trust has become the go-to vehicle for bequeathing firearms in an estate for owners who do not wish to have their collections sold after their death.

Increased Demand for Gun Trusts

The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System ran 21.1 million background checks for firearm purchases in 2013, a significant increase from the 19.6 million checks performed in 2012. The number of background checks also jumped in December of last year, with the FBI’s system running more than 2.3 million checks in that month alone, compared to only two million checks the December prior. This system runs a background check every time that a person walks into a licensed gun dealer and wishes to purchase a firearm.

Blended families, where there are children and spouses that have been through multiple marriages, come with estate planning conflicts that unblended families do not typically deal with. Children from previous marriages cut from wills, barred from seeing a sick parent, from attending a funeral, or inheriting part of a family business have all been issues that blended families have dealt with that come with complexities that an unblended estate plan does not have. With divorce and remarriage rates rising, the already delicate issue of inheritance can be an even bigger problem in blended families.

Blended Family Estate Planning

According to the National Stepfamily Resource Center, in the United States two out of every five marriages end in divorce, and almost half of all married people get married again at some point in their lives. In the unions of people who have married twice, around 65% involve children from prior marriages. This can make the transfer of brokerage accounts, real estate, and personal property very tricky.

Many affluent families are increasingly building or buying legacy properties – multi-million dollar properties or compounds that are designed to be shared with family now and for generations to come. This trend comes with the rising interest in multi-generational living and vacationing as well as to be a place where family from around the country or world can gather to be together. However, estate planning with complex family dynamics, lifestyle issues, or logistical problems can often mar what is meant to be a place for family.

Legacy Homes

What make legacy homes different from just a large house are the resort-style amenities being built on the property. Many legacy homes have multiple master bedrooms or mini apartments, sport courts (volleyball, basketball, tennis, croquet), and swimming pools. In-home theaters or teen zones for digital gaming are also commonplace in a legacy home. Lakefront or seaside properties often come with their own dock, boathouse, or beach. Meanwhile, legacy homes in the countryside routinely come with shooting ranges, hunting areas, or equestrian facilities.

For people who are estate planning and have one of their goals as providing for their grandchildren’s education, training, future home, or the like there are many assets that can be suited for that goal. However, there is one asset that does not often come to mind that can cover the expenses of future generations that most elderly couples already possess: life insurance.

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance is a type of insurance that is designed to protect a person over their entire lifetime. Typically, an insured person pays a fixed periodic premium on the insurance, and a death benefit is provided to a named beneficiary when the insured dies. The policy builds in value over the lifetime of the insured as premiums are paid, and if at any time the insured person wishes to terminate the policy, the cash value is surrendered to them.

In order to keep the wealthy and elderly citizens residing in the state, New York recently raised its state estate tax exemption to five million dollars, up from the mere one million dollar limit of previous years. Matching the federal exemption level, many people in the state were thrilled that their estates were now shielded from tax. However, legislators added a twist to the new limit that may put the wealthy at even more of a disadvantage than they were before.

New York Estate Tax Limits

Under the new law, the state estate tax threshold will gradually increase from one million dollars to five million dollars, indexed for inflation, so that it matches the federal estate tax exemption level by January 1, 2019. However, the new law also includes an estate tax “cliff” that applies to all estates that exceed the current exclusion amount by more than five percent. Those estates are taxed back to the first dollar, effectively eliminating the state estate tax benefits for any wealthy New York estates.

The United Kingdom recently announced that it had digitized its archives of over 41 million wills registered in England and Wales, dating back to 1858, that will allow people to explore the wills of some of the most influential figures of the last century and a half in addition to researching their own family history. At the click of a mouse, people will be able to find out more about their own relatives as well as the last wishes of some of the most famous figures in English history.

Will Database Project

The HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) teamed up with the storage and information management company Iron Mountain to digitize the 41 million wills and last testaments stored in the nation’s archives. The purpose of the project was to open up more public services to the common people. It also allows requests to be dealt with quickly and without people needing to visit the probate registry in person to search the archives.

In a recent opinion released by the Seventh Circuit court of Appeals, the court found that the attorney in charge of a trust was liable for all of the costs of arbitration when the arbitration committee sees fit to assess expenses against specific parties. This case is important because the costs applied after the trustee had settled all claims with the other party and applied even though the trustee had applied for bankruptcy. It also highlights the importance of knowing the level of fiduciary duty and responsibility taken when agreeing to become the trustee for a trust.

Facts of the Case

In 2008, Ms. Lauralee Bell sued Mr. Philip Ruben, a lawyer, for negligently and fraudulently mismanaging her trust, inflicting a loss of $34 million. Mr. Ruben asked to arbitrate the claims and she agreed, but before Ms. Bell could initiate arbitration Mr. Ruben filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Ms. Bell filed an adversary complaint opposing discharge of Ruben’s fraud-based debt to her, and the bankruptcy judge granted Ruben a discharge of his other debts, but not of that fraud debt to Ms. Bell.