Missives

While a divorce automatically revokes a disposition to an ex-spouse in a governing instrument like a Will or Trust, all by a Michigan statute, there continues to be a debate if a bequest or devise to a stepchild is also automatically revoked when a divorce occurs.

Much confusion in the retirement planning world stems from the fact that there are different rules for each type of retirement plan, e.g., IRA, Roth IRA, 403(b) plan, qualified plan, etc.

The administration a trust, either a charitable remainder trust or a grantor retained annuity trust, after it is created is equally as important as complying with the required technical terms of the trust, when the goal is to either obtain an income tax deduction or avoid the imposition of a taxable gift.

Providing information with regard to a trust to its beneficiaries is statutorily required. Ambiguity exists, however, when trying to determine what trust provisions affect the beneficiary’s interest or when a request for information from a trust beneficiary is unreasonable.

In recent IRS Notice 2023-62, the IRS delayed the SECURE Act 2.0 requirement that some catch-up 401(k) contributions be Roth catch-up contributions, i.e. made with after-tax dollars, until 2026.

Many ‘old’ irrevocable trust may soon be terminating or entering into new phases, where the generation skipping transfer tax (GSTT) will increasingly apply, with non-skip beneficiaries dying and with skip persons becoming eligible to receive trust distributions.

: In 2021 donor advised funds made up seven of the top 10 charities to which contributions were made by the general public.

While annuitizing a portion of a retirement account can reduce the account owner’s taxable required minimum distribution amount, there are still plenty of unanswered questions that require the IRS’s guidance in hopefully soon Temporary Regulations.

It is fair to say that there is not much awareness of Michigan’s antilapse statutes nor understanding of their broad application to Wills, trusts, and numerous other nonprobate governing instruments.

The anxiety caused by the SECURE Act 2.0 with regard to mandating Roth catch-up contributions just got a 2-year reprieve.