Estate planning attorneys and CPAs all keep an eye on letter rulings to see if IRS decisions have any bearing on their own client’s situations. In this case, a taxpayer is setting up a revocable trust and wants to use a Charitable Lead Annuity Trust known as a CLAT.
A recently posted letter ruling from the IRS addresses the use of a CLAT used in estate planning.
A CLAT letter ruling could be of interest to those who are using life insurance, annuities or other instruments in estate planning.
Here’s a legacy that you may not want to leave for your family to pay: your credit card debt. It doesn’t go away when you die.
Three out of four consumers die in debt, says Yahoo Finance’s recent article, “What Happens to Credit Card Debt When You Die?” That means the executor has to pay the debt, and the money comes from what might have been an inheritance. If you have many debts, the inheritance may become very small—or vanish altogether.
If you’re worried about your family being stuck with your debts after you die, know your rights and work with an estate planning attorney to help protect your assets.
“Until death do us part” sounds very different when you are in your twenties and getting married for the first time. As a couple travels through a life together, the time comes to create or revise an estate plan.
Granted, the estate planning process isn’t as much fun as planning a wedding but preparing for property distribution and planning for incapacity is a way to protect your spouse from having to deal with most preventable issues during a crisis. It can also prevent any number of unpleasant surprises.
Despite this, 17% of adults don’t think they need a will, believing that estate planning is only for the very wealthy. No matter how few assets it seems someone owns, completing a few documents can make a huge difference in the future.
One of the reasons for a pre-nuptial agreement, is to clarify who owns what in the marriage, and what happens to property if the marriage should dissolve. In a community property state, everything is “ours.”
If you live in a community property state, like Texas, and you are married, both spouses own and have an equal right to assets, which are considered marital property. The issue is explored in nj.com’s recent article, “Does this house really become community property after marriage?”
Let’s imagine you own a home before your second marriage and created a will leaving the condo to a child. However, you sold the home and purchased another house in your name using funds from the sale and your own funds.
Being named an executor for someone you care about is an honor. It means they trust you and your judgment explicitly. However, it is an honor that comes with responsibilities.
The role of an executor varies with the size and complexity of the estate. The executor is charged with making sure that all final arrangements are made, according to the decedent’s wishes. The executor is also involved with making sure that the distribution of property as directed in the will takes place, taxes are paid and more. It’s a big job. Before agreeing to take on this role, you’ll need to know what it entails, and be confident that you can do it. An article from Investopedia, “5 Things to Consider Before Becoming an Estate Executor” explains the details.
Estate planning is not as much fun as vacation planning, but it is something you do for your loved ones to save them a lot of stress. It can also provide a surprising sense of relief to have this task completed.
It’s hard for anyone to consider their own mortality. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to protect your family by making sure you have a well-designed estate plan for distributing your assets, communicating your intentions and getting organized. Think of it as tidying up your life.
Forbes’s article, “Estate Planning: What You Need To Know,” says that this preparation means asking yourself questions that can make you uncomfortable, like the following:
Wealth transfer occurs in a number of different ways, and sometimes there are too many choices. How do you decide which strategy to use? Start by educating yourself about some of the fundamentals of lifetime gifting.
Gifting strategies are used to minimize the tax burden on estates and preserve assets, since they promote the transfer of wealth across generations. There are five frequently used lifetime gifting strategies outlined in a recent article from Forbes, “5 Lifetime Gift Strategies For You And Your Family To Consider.” For families with significant assets, these need to be discussed with their estate planning attorney to see how they will fit with the family’s overall estate plan.
A grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) is an irrevocable trust that can be a good choice, if you want to transfer hard-to-value assets. A GRAT also lets you keep your income stream, divide property interests and make discounted gifts to future generations. With a GRAT, the grantor transfers assets to a trust but maintains a right to an annual income stream, or annuity payment, for a specific period of time. The income stream’s value is deducted from the value of the transferred assets when determining the gift’s full taxable value. Anything left in the GRAT after the annuity period expires, is given to the trust’s beneficiaries without any more gift or estate taxes. However, if the grantor dies before the end of the trust term, the whole value of the trust will be included in the taxable estate (like the trust had never been created). Therefore, you can see how important it can be to carefully choose the term of the trust, so the grantor is likely to live beyond its termination.
A will serves several purposes. It gives you the power to distribute your possessions, according to your own wishes. It also lets you name who should take care of your children, if they are minors when you die, and of your pets, if you provide for them in the will.
Just because your wealth isn’t measured in billions, doesn’t mean you don’t need a will. Without one, explains Yahoo Finance’s recent article, “Do You Really Need a Will?” you’ll have no say in what happens once you pass away. There may also be less for your heirs to inherit. There will also be more legal costs and stress.
Each state has laws that pertain to the distribution of a person's estate, if they die without a will. These laws most likely won’t mesh with your personal desires. If you don't have a will, ask yourself why you don't. Perhaps you think you don't need one. However, more than likely you do. If you're putting off starting this important estate planning task, here are some things to consider.
Target date funds are growing in popularity, in part because they don’t require investors to do anything in the way of fund management. Are they right for you? That depends.
Like any investment, there are pros and cons to using target date funds for retirement savings. The concept is easy to grasp—just pick the year you want to retire and select that fund that’s closest to that year. Say you’re 50 and you want to retire in 2034. You’d pick the 2035 fund. The fund is actively managed and rebalanced to adjust risks, as you get closer to retirement, explains Kiplinger in the article “Is a Target Date Fund Right for You?”
Target date funds are a good option for investors who aren’t intimately involved with their investments and who wouldn’t rebalance their investments on their own. These funds are also good for DIY investors because they’re a more comprehensive strategy than selecting funds based on past performance—which is the method often used by do-it-yourselfers. However, past performance doesn’t always indicate future growth.
When you die, the assets you’ve accumulated during your lifetime have to be distributed. If you don’t make a plan, your family may be left to clean up a legal mess, quarrel amongst themselves, or watch as a long-lost family member is given everything by a court decision.
An estate planning attorney helps clients, by making sure that the distribution of property after the person dies is done the way they wanted it done. While a plan may be simple or complicated, says the New Hampshire Union Leader in a recent article, “Estate planning is important and may require help from a professional,” working with an experienced estate planning attorney will save your family time, unnecessary costs and stress.
You definitely need to work with an attorney if your life falls into any of these categories:
