Take-Away: A testator possesses the right to leave his or her property by Will. However, the rights of the beneficiaries to the testator’s property are subject to the restrictions and limitations of EPIC which are intended to facilitate the prompt settlement of the decedent’s estate and its administration, including the payment of the decedent’s debts. […]

Take-Away: While special needs trusts are extremely helpful to preserve a trust beneficiary’s eligibility to receive Medicaid benefits, a trustee needs to be cautious in making discretionary distributions when the trust beneficiary is eligible to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Background: A disabled or special needs individual may seek a monthly fixed income,  usually […]

Take-Away: A Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (a SIMPLE IRA) is a cross between a qualified plan and a traditional IRA. Sometimes a SIMPLE IRA follows traditional IRA rules, and at other times a SIMPLE IRA follows qualified plan rules. That blend between the two types of retirement plans (IRA and qualified plan) and […]

Take-Away: There is currently a Bill before the House Ways and Means Committee that would permit the conversion of the cash surrender value of a life insurance policy to long-term care coverage without any income tax consequences to the policy owner. This Bill is something we should watch, along with the SECURE Act Bill, which […]

Take-Away: Michigan does not have a Family Consent Law. In the absence of such a law, even more, importance is placed on an individual executing a durable power of attorney for health care, or an advance directive, in which one or more patient advocates are named to make decisions for the patient when the patient […]

Take-Away: The IRS just published its Final Regulations that address the clawback concern with regard to lifetime gifts, the value of which are added back into the donor-decedent’s taxable estate. Clawback is an interpretion problem that was created by the 2017 Tax Act and its 2025 sunset provision. A computational problem results due to the […]

Take-Away: The IRS recently published the inflation adjustments for some of the tax exemptions or exclusions that we regularly work with on behalf of our clients. Source: Revenue Procedure 2019-44 2020 Exemption Amounts: Basic Exclusion Amount (BEA): was $11.4 million per individual; for 2020 the BEA will be $11.58 million for an individual (this is […]

Take-Away: An antilapse statute provides for an alternate gift if the intended recipient of the gift dies prematurely. The Estates and Protected Individuals Code provides antilapse statutes for both Wills and for Trusts, and for beneficiary designations, all of which are closely aligned but can be slightly different in effect when implemented. Background: An antilapse […]

Take-Away: Generally, property that is inherited or received by gift during a marriage is treated as the recipient’s separate property in a future divorce. However, there are exceptions to this general rule, both under Michigan common law and statutes, and with other state’s statutes, that permit a divorce judge to ‘invade’ one spouse’s separate property. […]

Take-Away: The Tax Code’s self-dealing rules are designed to prohibit perceived abuses when financial transactions are entered into between a disqualified person and a private foundation. As a surprise to some, these same self-dealing prohibitions also apply to charitable lead trusts (CLTs) and charitable remainder trusts (CRTs.) The penalties associated with self-dealing transactions are onerous. […]