Missives

A Trust can be classified for many different reasons, or provisions, as a grantor Trust, which may or may not be in the settlor’s best interest.

In a couple of situations there is an automatic waiver when there’s a failure to take a required minimum distribution.

The SECURE Act 2.0 expands the availability of hardship withdrawals.

: As the cost of healthcare explodes, along with escalating health insurance premiums, it may be time to take a second-look at funding a health savings account (HSA.)

Starting this year a qualified elective deferral retirement plan may have ‘linked’ to it an emergency savings account that has a balance up to $2,500.

If a donor intends that a lifetime gift is to be an advancement of the donee’s future inheritance, that intent must be indicated by the donor in a contemporaneous writing.

Biometric information is now used in many different ways these days. How it is used, and protected, is something we need to be concerned about, both while the individual is alive, and when and how it can be used after the individual’s death.

The SECURE Act 2.0 permits $50,000 of a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from an IRA to be used to fund a charitable gift annuity (CGA) while satisfying some (or all ) of the IRA owner’s required minimum distribution (RMD) obligation for the year. Recently an increase in the recommended CGA maximum rates may make this new opportunity to be even more attractive for donors.

Transfers-on-death designations are useful in some situations, but they are not appropriate in every case.

The IRS recently concluded that modifying a grantor Trust to add an income tax reimbursement provision that benefits the trust settlor results in a taxable gift by the trust beneficiaries.