Piggybacking on my last post about transferring real estate into a living trust, let’s also look at a special type of irrevocable trust, the Qualified Personal Residence Trust or QPRT. QPRTs not only protect your assets in real property by moving them out of your taxable estate, they can also help you reduce your tax burden. Here’s how it works: You, as the owner of a personal residence, transfer the […]
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Archive for 2014
“You should avoid probate.” This is one the most common refrains you hear when you talk to a wills and trusts lawyer or financial advisor. In fact, they have done such a good job emphasizing the evils associated with the probate process that even sophisticated people mistakenly believe that, once they set up a trust or estate plan, they don’t have to do anything else once someone passes When done […]
Read MoreA client recently asked me about transferring a piece of property he had bought into his living trust. “This is actually easier than you might think,” I told him. “Just give me the address, and I’ll get everything rolling.” Whether it’s your principal home or a secondary property, putting real estate into a trust or even purchasing it in the name of the trust from the get-go is always a […]
Read MoreIf you’ve been following my blog you probably know that many of the estate planning posts assume that a person’s heirs are his or her children. So what about childless couples, you may have been asking yourself, do they need a plan too? The answer is yes. At the very least, they should answer two questions: Who will inherit their property, and who should handle their affairs if they become […]
Read MoreThe term charitable remainder trust is hardly self-explanatory, and some of the acronyms that go along with it, like CRAT or Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust and CRUT or Charitable Remainder Unitrust, don’t make things easier; but the concept behind the words does make the instrument one of my favorites in estate planning. As promised in my last post, I’ll talk about charitable remainder trusts (CRTs), CRUT vs CRAT, in greater […]
Read MoreAmericans are givers, and increasingly so; according to Giving USA 2014, corporations, foundations and individuals donated more than $330 billion in 2013. Adjusted for inflation, that is 3 percent up from 2012 and a 12 percent increase over 2009, the year the recession officially ended. More than 70 cents out of every dollar donated came from individuals, i.e. from people like you and me. Religious and educational charities benefitted most. […]
Read MoreAbout five percent of school-aged children in the United States live with a disability. Their diagnoses include vision, hearing and orthopedic impairments as well as serious emotional disturbance, autism and specific learning disabilities. In many cases these children continue to depend on the multi-pronged support of others into adulthood. If you have a son or daughter with a disability you may be wondering how you can help him or her stay […]
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Owners of family-owned and closely held businesses are for good and obvious reasons concerned about taxes. But sometimes the focus on legitimate and legal tax avoidance causes people to forget about asset protection. This is where a Limited Liability Company or LLC can come into play. Without an LLC, a person’s property would be often owned in an individual capacity or in their living trust. And that can lead to […]
Read MoreYou and your spouse hold the title to a nice-sized home in a well-to-do L.A. suburb; maybe you even rent out a second, smaller house and have a couple of insurance policies, or you own some shares here and some bonds there. Bottom line, you live comfortably but you’re not part of the top one percent. Should your family worry about the federal estate tax? The answer may surprise you, […]
Read MoreWhat’s the difference between a revocable and an irrevocable trust? As an attorney, I often hear this question, usually with the person who’s asking adding something along the lines of: I know what the words mean, but what are the implications for each? Simply put, what distinguishes the two is how much control you retain over your assets. But then, once you reach a certain level of wealth, things get […]
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