Missives

A recent study on donor advised funds may give some in Congress something to think about before it tries to curb perceived ‘abuses’ of donor advised funds.

An IRA can be lost in a criminal forfeiture, which can be just the beginning of the IRA owner’s problems.

One wonders if there will be more deemed taxable gifts when irrevocable trusts are modified considering the IRS’s recent Chief Counsel Advisory.

The academic community continues to debate the question of whether a trust is either a branch of contract law, or a branch of property law. According to others, there are four fundamental legal relationships from which to pick, or perhaps each of which may ultimately be involved in the creation of a trust relationship.

The capacity to execute a non-probate instrument is different than the capacity to execute a Will, which can lead to inconsistent standards that are applied.

Some IRC 529 higher education account balances can now be rolled into a Roth IRA, starting this year. However, there are still some important questions that need to be answered, which means we must await guidance in yet-to-be-published IRS Regulations.

The recent Chief Counsel Advice 202352018 casts a cloud over the favorable tax treatment of grantor trusts, which leads to some concerns that the IRS may take future steps to erode the income and estate tax benefits of a grantor trust, or the gift tax implications when a beneficiary of a decanted trust does not object to the trustee’s decanting decision.

As an individual’s income continues to rise, the ability to make a Roth IRA contribution diminishes. Thus enters the ‘backdoor’ traditional IRA conversion to a Roth IRA strategy to enable high-earners the ability to contribute to a Roth IRA.

As an individual’s income continues to rise, the ability to make a Roth IRA contribution diminishes. Thus enters the ‘backdoor’ traditional IRA conversion to a Roth IRA strategy to enable high-earners the ability to contribute to a Roth IRA.