22-Apr-19
30-Point Checklist for Terminally Ill Individuals
The following is a checklist compiled by David A. Handler and Kristen A. Curatolol that appeared in the April 2019 edition of Trusts & Estates.
- Plan for incapacity
- Fund the revocable trust
- Make tax-free gifts
- Make charitable gifts during life
- Use gift tax exemptions
- Make taxable gifts
- Reduce state estate taxes
- Substitute low basis trust assets
- Transfer depreciated assets to spouse
- Make gifts of appreciated assets from spouse and others
- Consolidate instruments
- Grant or eliminate general powers of appointment
- Exercise a limited power of appointment
- Revisit designated fiduciaries
- Review life insurance
- Transfer partnership interests
- Terminate old family limited partnership or LLCs and trusts
- Terminate leases
- Pay off promissory notes
- Accelerate income in respect of a decedent
- Review governing instruments of FLPs and FLLCs
- Transfer depreciated assets to avoid ‘loss of the loss’
- Purchase grantor retained annuity trust remainder interests by spouse
- Direct the sale of homes and other assets in a Will
- Transfer funds from IRAs to charity
- Review charity pledge agreements
- Review private foundation’s organizational documents and structure
- Oversee disposition of digital assets
- Plan for disposition of stored genetic material and treatment of posthumous children
Plan for disposition of bodily remains