Take-Away: As you have repeatedly heard from me over the last year, there has been a fundamental shift in estate planning from minimizing federal estate taxes to minimizing federal income taxes. While clients want to continue to make lifetime gifts for a variety of reasons, it is helpful to keep the income tax consequences of […]

Take-Away: Many trust instruments these days, especially dynasty-type trusts, use a pot trust approach in order to give the trustee considerable latitude to spread taxable income generated by the trust over several trust beneficiaries who may be in low, or no, income tax brackets. Along with the flexibility that comes with a pot trust are […]

Take-Away: To describe Michigan’s real property tax rules as complicated is a gross understatement. The key To navigate the uncapping rules in search of an exception is to go slow (to the point of moving your lips while you read the key definitions) in order to avoid a taxable value uncapping when title transfers to […]

Take-Away: In response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, the IRS revised many of its rules to make it easier for victims who live in a large part of Texas to access their retirement assets. Loans and Hardship Withdrawals: The relaxed rules apply to plan loans and hardship distributions. You will recall however that […]

Take-Away:  As a client reaches age 70 and faces the obligation to take required minimum distributions (RMDs),  these rules are bewildering, which can lead to some traps that cause penalties, or they can offer a creative way to defer reporting the RMD as additional taxable income with the still working exception to the RMD rules. […]

Take-Away: Michigan’s version of the Uniform Principal and Income Act (UPAIA or Act) [recently renamed the Fiduciary Principal and Income Act] gives a Trustee the authority to classify principal as income in order to treat all trust beneficiaries (life and remainder) impartially and invest trust assets for a total return. This authority is critical to […]

Take-Away: Greenleaf Trust may be named as successor trustee of a Trust instrument that it learns about only after the settlor has died. Greenleaf Trust can take some steps with respect to the Trust and its assets without a formal acceptance of the Trust. The unanswered question, however,  is just how far Greenleaf Trust can […]

Take-Away:  The owner of an IRA or qualified plan account, e.g. 401(k) account, can designate a donor-advised fund as the beneficiary for those taxable assets. The bequest will qualify for a federal estate tax charitable deduction Background: A donor-advised fund is classified as a public charity. IRC 501(c)(3). It receives contributions from an individual donor, […]

Take-Away: The income interest in a charitable remainder trust (CRT) is treated as a capital asset that can be bought, sold, or reinvested just like other capital assets, e.g. real estate. The income interest can be sold to,  or rolled over into, a new CRT if the goal is to change the CRT’s terms. Background:  […]

Take-Away: While the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC) addresses the impact of a divorce on a spouse’s intestacy rights, it is important to note that some EPIC provisions also expressly deal with the divorce’s impact on  a spouse’s Will or a Trust or other governing instrument. Some of those provisions do not however cross-over […]