I recently wrote about portability, specifically, what it is and how to elect it. This post takes it one step further, discussing how portability and gifting interact.
Choosing to Disinherit
Maggie Green
December 14, 2011
December 14, 2011
We hear about it in the news, someone famous has disinherited a family member, or even more exciting, the whole family! Sometimes we even hear from the disgruntled “non-beneficiary” with an explanation or a tell-all critique of the person who did the disinheriting. But we rarely hear about it with the perspective that Mary Beth Caschetta […]
Tax Relief for Qualified Minnesota Businesses and Farms
Scott Johnson
December 9, 2011
December 9, 2011
For those of you out there that are residents of Minnesota and owners of a small business or family farm, there is a relatively new law offering relief from the Minnesota estate tax.
Why Life Insurance is Important
Lindsey Manhart
December 1, 2011
December 1, 2011
Can your family survive on $250 each month? The average American has $50,000 of life insurance through work, which equals about $250 per month in income replacement. Are you that average American? Can your family survive on $250 each month? Many income earners think, “Life insurance doesn’t fit into my budget. Life insurance is expensive. […]
Titling Real Estate
Jayne Sykora
November 28, 2011
November 28, 2011
When working with clients on their estate plans, one of the most important items to consider and understand is how real estate is titled. First, let’s discuss what “title” means. Title is a legal term that describes a bundle of rights in a piece of property. The rights in the bundle may be separated and […]
Premarital Wills
Jennifer Santini
November 26, 2011
November 26, 2011
If a testator executes a Will before getting married and never updates the Will to include the spouse before he or she passes away, the surviving spouse is known as a pretermitted spouse. In such case, state statutes provide that the pretermitted spouse is entitled to inherit an amount equal to what the spouse would […]
Paterno’s transfer to wife was for estate planning purposes.
Maggie Green
November 20, 2011
November 20, 2011
When I heard about the scandal at Penn State, I never imagined that it would lead to an Epilawg article on estate planning. But somehow, the topic of federal tax planning worked its way into this news story. An article on InvestmentNews.com reported that in July of 2011, Joe Paterno transferred his interest in the […]
Baby Boomers Leaving Less to Children
Jamie Held
November 8, 2011
November 8, 2011
I read a recent “LA Times” article and the message hit home. My parents have been telling my sisters and me for years now that we are receiving our inheritance when we need it most … now, for expenses such as our education, purchasing our first homes and our weddings. Apparently my parents are not […]
What is Portability?
Jamie Held
October 31, 2011
October 31, 2011
2010 Tax Relief Act The 2010 Tax Relief Act (a.k.a. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010) provided us with a $5 million federal estate tax exemption and a federal estate tax rate of 35%. It also introduced a feature called “portability” (see previous Epilawg articles summarizing the 2010 Tax […]
Selecting Trustees
Jayne Sykora
October 26, 2011
October 26, 2011
We’ve written on Epilawg before about the importance of choosing the right individuals for the various roles that need to be filled in your estate plan. In this post, I will focus specifically on choosing a trustee.
Another Way To Give
Jennifer Santini
October 23, 2011
October 23, 2011
Maggie Green recently wrote about instilling charitable values in children in her post Raising Young Philanthropists. While this post is a little off topic from most of our estate planning articles, in honor of the 2011 National Pro Bono Celebration, I thought it was appropriate to extend the conversation not only to charitable giving but […]