All discretionary trusts should contain a provision that authorizes the trustee to make distributions of the trust’s gross income to public charities to enable the trustee to manage the trust’s federal income tax liability.

A new bill is before Congress to provide yet another means to save for future medical expenses, the HOPE Act. It is not clear if this legislation, if it becomes law, is much of an improvement on the existing health savings account options currently in the Tax Code.

IRC 2036 is a trap that awaits many transferors who intend to play the valuation-discount-game with the transfer of readily marketable assets to an illiquid family limited partnership or LLC in exchange for an unmarketable interest. This is even more likely to spring that trap when this sophisticated transfer planning is engaged in by the transferor’s agent who acts under a durable power of attorney, which seems to be a ‘red flag’ for the Tax Court these days.

Intrafamily loans can be an effective way to shift wealth to lower family generation members without incurring any gift tax.

The benefit of naming a testamentary charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT) as the beneficiary of an IRA have increased with the currently prevailing higher interest rates and the SECURE Act’s 10-year distribution rule which now requires annual distributions from an inherited IRA if the IRA owner died after his/her required beginning date (RBD.)

The holding period of a Roth 401(k) account is not ‘tacked’ onto a Roth IRA to which the 401(k) funds are transferred for purposes of determining if a qualified distribution can be taken from the Roth IRA.

The designated beneficiaries of the decedent’s IRA now have additional time in which to take the decedent’s year-of-death final required minimum distribution (RMD.)

Under a Michigan undisclosed, or silent, trust the trustee is not required to produce trust accounts to anyone. If that is the case, does the statute of limitations on the trustee’s administration of the trust ever run?

The application of Michigan’s default rules for the allocation or apportionment of estate or inheritance taxes can often lead to surprises, and thus unequal inheritances, when the decedent’s estate plan relies, in part, on ladybird deeds, transfer-on-death beneficiary designations, or sizable IRAs with designated beneficiaries.

Anytime there is a marriage, death, divorce, or birth of a child or grandchild, it is important to review existing beneficiary designations to avoid the possibility that someone other than the account owner’s intended beneficiary will receive their retirement funds.