Missives

An estate planning technique that is getting a lot more attention these days, as 2026 and the reduced applicable exemption amount fast approaches, and estate illiquidity is a genuine concern, is the use of an intergenerational split-dollar arrangement.

If an individual owns some guns, or a gun collection, the use of a gun trust may make good sense to facilitate the use and transfer of such firearms on the owner’s death.

FinCen just published its final rules with regard to beneficial ownership information reporting. The good news is that estate planning trusts are exempt from such reporting. The

Look forward to some corrective legislation from Congress in 2023 to ‘fix’ some of the problems associated with the SECURE Act 2.0 and, in particular, the opportunity of individuals who are over age 50 to make catch-up contributions to their retirement account.

The Proposed Regulations with regard to the deductibility of debts and expenses of a decedent’s estate are precipitating some strong opposition due to their failure to take into consideration reality, especially when it comes to a family held business as a part of the decedent’s estate.

There is a growing sense that Congress will tackle its ‘improved’ retirement planning legislation after the midterm elections, with yet another change in the investment universe of 401(k) plans.

There are some provisions in the SECURE Act 2.0 that may have either been overlooked or which not have received much attention in the media. The SECURE Act 2.0 has many provisions, but just how impactful they will be to promote more retirement savings is subject to serious debate.

The sale of appreciated assets to a grantor trust in exchange for an installment note is a popular estate planning technique that is used to remove appreciating assets from the seller’s taxable estate, but without incurring a capital gain tax on the sale to the trust. Unfortunately, a couple of questions still remain unanswered with the settlor’s sale of an appreciating asset to his/her grantor trust in exchange for an installment promissory note. Because these questions have not been readily answered by the IRS, it would be best for the grantor trust to pay off the promissory note in full before the settlor dies.

Partisan politics has now entered the world of investing, specifically socially responsible investing and environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, investment focused practices.

The benefits and limitations of a conventional spousal lifetime access trust, or SLAT, are fairly straightforward. However, SLATs can also be structured differently to accomplish different tax or creditor protection objectives. As such, a variety of form SLATs should be considered to best achieve the settlor’s objectives.