Take Away:  Month’s ago I reported on the Lerbakken Bankrutpcy Court decision where a debtor’s awarded interest in his former spouse’s retirement accounts was not protected in his subsequent bankruptcy proceeding. That decision was sustained by a federal appeals court earlier this month. Case: Lerbakken v. Sielfoff & Associates, 590 BR 895122, A.F.T.R. 2d 2018-6359 […]

Take-Away: Addiction is a reality in our society today. Parents and grandparents often turn to trusts to hold and administer an addicted family member’s inheritance. If a trustee is called upon to use trust assets to deal with a beneficiary’s addiction, then a trustee should require that certain provisions be included in the trust instrument, […]

Take-Away: Individuals often execute durable powers of attorney at the same time they execute a will or a revocable trust. If no trust exists to which an incapacitated individual’s assets can be transferred, where they can be managed by the successor trustee and thus avoid probate, does the agent under the durable power of attorney […]

Take-Away: Many of the provisions of the 2017 Tax Act (the Act) apply to trusts and estates as well as individuals. But in one respect there is more of an impact on trusts and estates with the temporary suspension of IRC 67(g) miscellaneous itemized deductions until January 1, 2026. The overall impact of that suspension […]

Take-Away: Last week Acting IRS Commissioner, David Kautter, announced that proposed Regulations that provide guidance with regard to the new IRC 199A 20% deduction to business profits will be issued in the next couple of weeks, having been ‘fast-tracked.’ He also said that Treasury’s intent was that the proposed Regulations will become final Regulations before […]

Take-Away: The Michigan Trust Code contains a couple of provisions that permit an irrevocable trust to be terminated. But just because the income beneficiary and remainder beneficiaries agree to commute the lifetime beneficiary’s interest under the trust will result in the termination of the trust.  A judge may have different thoughts on the termination when […]

Take-Away: If individuals reside with one another, but they have no intention of marrying, then planning opportunities should be considered. Most of the problems posed by Chapter 14 of the Tax Code valuation rules can pretty much be ignored when the individuals are not family members. Background: There is an increasing phenomena in our society […]

Take-Away: Many individuals should consider the adoption of charitable remainder trust. In part, because of the dramatic increases in the stock market last year, many are sitting on appreciated investment portfolios. Others may need to diversify their investment portfolio which will cause them to incur capital gains in that diversification process to reduce overweighting risks.  […]

Take-Away: We are promised rising interest rates for the balance of this year and probably into next year as well. In a period of rising interest rates some estate planning strategies, like GRATs and CLATs,  work better than other conventional estate planning strategies. Similarly, increasing interest rates will dictate the minimum rate of interest that […]

Take-Away: A popular estate planning device these days is  a grantor trust. The transferred assets are removed from the settlor’s taxable estate. The settlor is charged with paying the income taxes on the grantor trust’s income, thus reducing the settlor’s taxable estate, while the income tax payments made on behalf of the grantor trust are […]