Personal representatives and trustees are commonly responsible for distributing real property from an estate or trust to its designated beneficiaries. Such distributions present unique challenges for personal representatives, trustees, and beneficiaries alike. To this end, there are several considerations that should be made prior to distributing real property from an estate or trust.
Part II: Why? Framing the Issue. “Art is a nation’s most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves and to others the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.” ~Lyndon Johnson, on signing the Arts & Humanities […]
Everyone should have an estate plan. Estate planning attorneys say that a lot, and we mean it! But this is even more critical for farming families. There are many unique issues and problems that play an important role when planning for families with farms, among them: estate taxes, complicated probates, business succession, emotional ties and […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
Similar to transferring a home, cabin, or other piece of real property into a revocable trust, individuals who have inherited or purchased farmland in Minnesota may want to transfer their farmland into a revocable trust. The reasons vary depending upon the situation, however, the major reason for transferring farmland into a trust is for estate […]
Since 2009, Frank and Jamie McCourt have been embattled in one of the messiest, public divorces. The McCourts were like any other couple. They met, fell in love, got married, and had four sons. However, along the way they purchased a major league baseball team, numerous homes costing millions of dollars and led an extravagant […]
In past articles we have covered the pros and cons of avoiding probate. As a brief refresher, probate is not always a terrible process but in some cases, it can be long, complicated, and expensive. If you want to avoid probate, you need to title your property in a way that it will be transferred […]
Probate avoidance is one reason why people seek advice from an estate planning attorney. The attorney can recommend, and put into place, various plans to ensure that assets pass outside of the probate process. An even stronger reason to make non-probate transfers is to avoid a probate in another state.
A Transfer on Death Deed (TODD) allows the owner of real estate to execute a deed that names the beneficiary who will succeed to ownership of the real estate at the owner’s death. A TODD can be a useful estate planning tool because it allows the transfer of real property without the need of probate […]