Estate Articles Archive

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• August 1, 2010 A Kafkaesque Estate - Also Bracing for Impact: The 2011 Tax Uncuts

  If Franz Kafka were writing a short story about an estate, it would undoubtedly have featured his signature themes of autobiographic reflections, alienation, and betrayal while caught in the teeth of a pointless and irrational bureaucratic nightmare. Download File (84 KB, PDF)

• July 30, 2010 A Billionaire's Free Pass - Also: Michael Jackson's Estate Revisited and Other Celebrity Estates

  Prepare yourself for crushing news: Lady Gaga has more friends on Facebook than you do. In fact, she has more Facebook friends than President Obama or any other living person, for that matter. She has surpassed the 10-million mark for Facebook friends. Download File (82 KB, PDF)

• June 15, 2010 Estate Planning Malpractice - A Best Practices Checklist - Also: An Interview with Robert G. Alexander - June 2010

  “Fiduciary liability is a hot issue, and estate planning is now the second or third highest area of new malpractice claims—and growing rapidly.” –Robert G. Alexander Download File (119 KB, PDF)

• May 15, 2010 Murder with a Twist - May 2010

  A murderer may be disqualified from benefiting from the victim’s IRA, but that won’t stop the IRS from treating the murderer as the measuring life for tax purposes. Download File (124 KB, PDF)

• April 1, 2010 The Grat's Last Gasp, Unbundling Reprieved and the Eyjafjallajokull of the Estate Tax

  Ironic twists that impact estate planning were contemplated as an initial organizing principle for this collection of recent
  developments. However, the rich veins of irony that run through the subject matter of taxation are so bountiful that merely scratching at the surface
  soon yields gushers of irony. Cases redolent in irony. Issues saturated in irony. A legislature that is never shamed by the tsunami of
  irony it produces. Download File (116 KB, PDF)

• March 1, 2010 Emergency WIll Repairs for 2010 (Part II)

  If I should die before I wake, how much will the tax man take? Lord only knows the answer. It is eminently reasonable for American taxpayers to ask how their estates will be taxed after they are deceased. People can make meaningful choices while they are alive, but after they are dead, not so much. Download File (115 KB, PDF)

• February 1, 2010 Emergency Will Repairs at Ground Zero - Estate Planning for 2010

  Every estate is at potential risk. Here is a checklist to review wills for 2010.Estates now face a bona fide catastrophe. We’ve arrived at ground zero for the estate tax, and many estate plans were not designed for a world without any Federal estate tax. Many wills need to be addressed immediately. Even a classic “credit shelter” or “A-B” plan could blow up under the current situation. Language from virtually every type of arrangement needs to be examined for each of the possible scenarios that could unfold. Download File (124 KB, PDF)

• January 1, 2010 Predictably Unpredictable; Estate Planning for 2010 & Memorable Quotations

  Contrary to all rational expectations and the predictions of experts, the estate tax has been repealed. There is currently no Federal estate tax. Has this changed estate planning? Should wills be reviewed, and how should they be modified? What if the estate tax returns, as so many experts continue to expect? How can plans remain flexible enough to cover the many potential scenarios that lie ahead? Let’s look at the rules and COLA adjustments for 2010. Download File (341 KB, PDF)

• November 1, 2009 Can The Estate Tax Cheat Death?

  By the time you read this, perhaps Congress has already intervened and delivered the great anti-climax everyone has been anticipating for years. Congress has a history of last-minute tax actions and even allowing deadlines to pass and taking retroactive tax actions. Retroactive tax laws are extremely uncool. Taxpayers need to be respected enough to be given a set of rules so that they can plan ahead. When a tax rule is changed retroactively, two contradictory sets of rules end up applying to the same time period. This is a paradox, which is inherently dangerous. Download File (339 KB, PDF)

• October 1, 2009 When Estates Go Wrong and: Testamentary Restraint of Same-Sex Marriage

  We plan and plan and plan yet the best laid plans go wrong! We plan for contingencies and provide for flexibility yet people can end up bewitched, snafued, flummoxed, and frustrated. How does a train jump the carefully laid out tracks? Here we have a few examples of such derailment including an executor’s worst nightmare of personal liability for estate tax, a will that stymied a lucrative building sale (after 99 years!) and trusts that needed to be terminated by hook or by crook. Download File (376 KB, PDF)

• September 1, 2009 A Closer Look at Living Wills - Kennedy Estates

  Living wills are back in the news so it is a good opportunity to review the practical planning implications of such documents as they relate to the appointment of fiduciaries, the execution of important documents and estate planning in general. And there are new developments to consider. Download File (380 KB, PDF)

• August 1, 2009 Asset Protection: When Bootstrapping Backfires Step Transactions Tripped Up

  Self reliance is a virtue to be admired but when there are potential creditors in one’s future, can you lift yourself out of harm’s way by your own bootstraps? Here we take a look at asset protection approaches that involve a bit of self-help magic, i.e, self-settled trusts, single member LLCs, and step transaction LLCs. Download File (365 KB, PDF)

• July 1, 2009 The King of Pop's Estate - The Will of Michael Jackson

  The King is dead; long live the King.1 The King of Pop’s mortal life has ended with debts in excess of $500 million but the value of his immortalized image could mean an immensely valuable future estate. What can the estate-planning profession learn from the Michael Jackson estate? What kind of testamentary document was used? Was the trust well designed? How will intellectual properties be managed? What executor will preside over the Michael Jackson estate? Download File (370 KB, PDF)

• June 1, 2009 Tax Reform Preview

  Change is in the air…tax change that is. The recently released “Green Book” from the Treasury contains a look at the tax laws coming down the pike. These may not measure up to the dramatic tax reform changes of yesteryear, but they certainly contain some serious tweaking. (Brace yourself to be semi-dazzled by all this tweaking.) Download File (366 KB, PDF)

• May 1, 2009 The Million-Dollar Estate & LLCS, Bankruptcy, Trusts

  The million-dollar estate is under attack. A divorce, a mishap, a period of unemployment, bad health, high mortgage payments, debts, a lawsuit—any number of scenarios can trigger a downward spiral. Tragically, a nice $1-million estate is at risk of never reaching the next generation of beneficiaries. Download File (391 KB, PDF)

• April 1, 2009 Planning in Fearful Times Shakespeare and Ben Franklin Had It Right

  “We have nothing to fear, except fear itself.” –Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  These are fearful times in which we plan. Set phasers to “stun” as we assemble a landing party and beam down to planet Earth to assess an assortment of alien adversaries affecting financial planning. Download File (343 KB, PDF)

• March 1, 2009Nevada-nizing Asset Protection - H.R. 436 Retains Estate Tax

  What if you could set up a trust for yourself? It would be oh, so simple: No middlemen, no third parties, no worries! Although most states have a problem with self-settled asset protection trusts, there are a few jurisdictions where statutory authority exists, albeit with some limits and practical considerations.

• February 1, 2009 Freeze, Squeeze & Burn Trusts

  And now for something completely different. A super-charged multi-tasking trust that utilizes readily available techniques and turns them into a totally innovative and effective arrangement.
  Estate-planning iconoclast Richard Oshins, key founder of the Inheritor’s TrustTM concept, has taken this concept to another level and estate planning may never be the same. His new approach: A beneficiary defective inheritor’s trust. Download File (333 KB, PDF)

• January 1, 2009 2009: Penultimate Plateau…or Pinnacle? & Memorable Quotations

  Estate tax professionals, welcome to 2009, the promised land! We have made it through nearly the entire estate tax repeal phase-in from 2001 through 2009, the pinnacle of estate tax repeal.
  Is this the fabled land of estate taxless nirvana? A tabula rasa of zero tax zen? If we see a white light should we go into the light? Or no, bad idea, run from the light! Are there any good mantras that rhyme with “unrealized capital gains?” Download File (406 KB, PDF)

• December 1, 2008 The Year in Review 2008 Plus Estates in the News

  Whooosh! Another year has rushed by (except for the months when it dragged on, such as during an endless election, or when oil prices were heading toward $150 per barrel, or when staggering stock market losses left investors stunned, shocked, disturbed, and depressed or when a series of financial melt downs took place on such a grand scale). Download File (153 KB, PDF)

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