Blog & Resources

Estate planning is the process of developing a plan for the transfer of your property at your death. An estate plan can be simple or complex. The need for simplicity or a more complex plan will depend on your own assets, your family dynamics, the possible problems faced by your heirs, tax issues and legal limitations.

While it is not a requirement, naming alternative beneficiaries in your will and in your beneficiary designation forms is a good idea.

If you have life insurance, you likely have determined that if you die there is a financial need that must be addressed by your absence. Because of this determination, you pay a small amount each year in premium to the life insurance company for the guarantee that if you die a larger sum of money will be delivered to the named beneficiary.

Decades ago, when I started my practice as an estate-planning attorney, there were rumblings about how modern medicine was changing the way people died. For most of human existence death came quickly from an illness or injury about which physicians could do nothing. Now, advances in medical knowledge allow us to battle death, giving us more time with our loved ones. But this same gift often makes the dying process a long, slow struggle against an incurable disease or untreatable injury. Sometimes, after a long struggle with illness and with full knowledge that death is certain and the future holds nothing but suffering, a person will decide to voluntarily stop eating and drinking (“VSED”), which hastens the inevitable end.

Every modern medical advance to make our lives better brings with it new challenges and problems we must address.

If you are an art collector interested in giving a piece of art to a charity, what factors should you consider in order to maximize your income tax deduction?

Short Answer: If a person as a collector contributes highly appreciated art purchased and held over one year to a qualified public charity and reports the contribution along with a supporting appraisal (if the art exceeds $5,000.00 in value) the person will avoid recognizing the built in capital gains, avoid paying inheritance and estate taxes and the person will be able to deduct the full fair market value of the donation as of the date of the contribution.

Long Answer: The Tax Code encourages the contribution of art to tax exempt organizations by allowing deductions against income for the gift. The size of the deduction will depend on several factors.

Any transfer of assets at death involves a variety of tax consequences, but estate planning for a married couple where one spouse is not a United States citizen involves unique taxation issues and planning. Couples who find themselves in this unique circumstance should consider the benefits of an estate plan that includes a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT).

In 2012, the federal estate tax provides a credit of $5,120,000, meaning that the first $5,120,000 of any estate not diminished by taxable lifetime gifts will pass free of the federal estate tax.¹ This exemption is scheduled to fall to $1,00,000.00 in 2013². Further, Section 2056 of the Internal Revenue Code contains the “marital deduction,” which provides that any property left to a surviving spouse following a decedent’s death is not taxed until the surviving spouse’s death. These provisions give married couples options for deferring estate tax payments until after the surviving spouse’s death.

Only a little over three months remain to maximize estate tax and gift tax opportunities that are scheduled to disappear in 2013. There is still time, but if you are going to act you need to start working with your estate planning lawyer soon.

Never have the Gift Tax and Estate Tax exemptions been higher than they are currently. The Federal Estate and Gift Tax Exemptions are currently $5,120,000.00. If congress takes no actions, these exemptions fall to $1,000,000.00 in 2013. This change exposes to taxation an additional $4,120,000 to those who die or gift in 2013 vs. 2012, increasing the tax due by hundreds if not millions of dollars.¹

A revocable trust, or its more popular name a “Living Trust”, is an increasingly popular estate planning tool. The Living Trust serves many useful purposes, but many people are told that one purpose is to reduce taxes. This is not true. A Revocable Trust does not reduce income taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, generation skipping taxes or inheritance taxes. In short, there is no tax advantage gained by a Living Trust. If someone is trying to sell you on the idea of forming a Revocable Trust based on tax savings, run away!

Some trusts do create various tax benefits. So why does a Living Trust provide no tax benefit?

In my previous article I introduced you to the basic understanding of Generation Skipping Tax; its origins, purpose and theory. This Article will take you a little deeper into the actual tax terms and how it is applied. My hope is that after reading these articles my clients will have a working knowledge of the Generation Skipping Tax and, with as much enthusiasm a non-tax geek can have, embrace planning techniques that help reduce or even avoid the Generation Skipping Tax.

One of the first calls I received after reporting for duty as a United States Navy JAG in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was from a family in Burlington County, New Jersey. The week before the call the family had buried their Grandfather. The Grandfather had been a WWII Navy vet. After the funeral they looked at his Will and found that his estate plan included a burial at sea. They wanted to know what to do.