CHARITABLE LEAD ANNUITY TRUST There are many great estate planning strategies that allow a person to avoid or lower estate tax liability and give money to charity at the same time. With the large estate tax exemption and portability of estate tax exemptions only a small number of Americans will…
NEW YORK ANTI-LAPSE STATUTE This blog previously discussed what happens if an heir passes away simultaneous with a testator and how the property that would otherwise go to the person who simultaneously passed away with testator ends up getting transferred. An obvious related question is what happens if an heir…
CLOSING PERCEIVED LOOPHOLE Congress created the generation skipping tax almost 40 years ago in 1976 and ushered in an age of increasing complexity for the tax code, always complicated and cumbersome, to fix a problem perceived at the time (and since) of avoiding taxable events by transferring assets to “several…
GOOD FOR CERTAIN SUBSET OF POPULATION A health savings account is another way to save your money, tax free, for an inevitable expense that everyone will have to face and deal with eventually. Unfortunately one of the variables of retirement is that you will never know how much you will…
ROBIN WILLIAMS UNIQUE ESTATE PLANNING GENIUS This blog discussed some of the aspects of Robin Williams estate in the past. Mr. Williams will be remembered for a long time due to his many accomplishments, with a long, funny, inciteful and compassionate comedic wit. While it seems fairly certain that Mr.…
It happens often enough that a parent for many reasons decides to disinherit one, several or all of his/her children. At the same time, this is often not a controversial decision and is just as common both understandable and predicable. Perhaps a person promised their estate to a specific child,…
WRONGFUL INTERFERENCE WITH WILL It is known by many different names, depending on the state and the era. Most recently it made its appearance in news headlines with the name – intentional interference with expected inheritance, sometimes even shortened it IIEI. The United States Supreme Court referred to it as…
WHAT HAPPENS IF A WILL IS INVALIDATED? Wills are perhaps the most basic and simple form of passing on property and the transmission of wealth from one generation to the next. It allows the testator to give away the property and money that they own and have on hand as…
GROWING LEGAL ISSUE The federal Department of Health and Human Services estimates that there are currently approximately 600,000 frozen embryos in the United States and the number continues to grow each year. Of these, it is estimated that approximately 60,000 could be implanted for full term pregnancy. In still other…
If you are granted a durable power of attorney over another person, it means that you have the right to make financial and legal decisions on their behalf. However, the power of attorney does have its limits, and a recent case that went to the Supreme Court in South Dakota…