I’m curious: Did you create your estate plan before 2011? Does it include a bypass trust, aka family, credit shelter or B trust? If so, then you should be aware that changes in estate taxes may affect you and that you and your attorney should take a fresh look at your estate plan. This is especially important if your net worth is less than $6 million. A bypass trust, which […]
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Posts Tagged ‘portability’
In my last blog post, “When tax exemptions carry over: Portability explained,” I promised to talk today about the cons of portability and why I still believe in the usefulness of bypass trusts even for the 99 percent. To cut to the chase: Portability has its advantages, but it doesn’t provide some of the protections a bypass trust can offer. I’m not going to delve into the specifics of bypass trusts […]
Read MoreSome people will tell you that the American Taxpayer’s Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) has made estate planning easy and foolproof for the vast majority of people, i.e. the 99%. They believe that a tool dubbed portability — I’ll explain how it works in a second — eliminated the need for complicated bypass trusts. Well, not quite. Portability, as I will show today, has its advantages. But in certain situations […]
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