Missives

Unlike the earlier court decisions that dealt with statutory formalities or the impact of the sponsor’s decisions on the value of the assets held in a DAF, Peterson seems to directly focus on the nature and legal effect of a DAF agreement that contains the donor/advisor’s retained advisory privileges.

Locating a dynastic non-grantor trust in a state that does not impose a state income tax can greatly help to avoid a tax drag on the accumulation of wealth.

One of the basic duties of a trustee is to keep trust beneficiaries reasonably informed. While there are limits to the character and volume of the information that the beneficiary may properly demand from the trustee, those limitations will be hard for a trustee to identify when the standard that is applied is reasonableness.

Obtaining a ‘free’ $1,000 contribution to a Trump Account cannot be overlooked as an enticement to open a Trump Account for a newborn. But if flexibility in access and investments, and the opportunity to avoid all taxation on earnings is an important motivation for a donor, then contributions to a 529 account is probably a much better long-term ‘investment’ that can be made on behalf of a child, since unlike a Trump Account, or a UTMA account, or a Minor’s Trust, the creator of the 529 account always remains in control of the account along with distributions from the 529 account, until the ‘excess’ 529 funds are later rolled into a Roth IRA for the child-beneficiary.

Congress decided to simply prohibit any contributions to a supporting organization via a QCD or a $1,000 cash give that is claimed ‘above-the-line’ starting this year. Bottom line: Make sure your QCD or $1,000 cash gift is not to a supporting organization.

The recent Heckerling Institute had an interesting presentation on January 15, 2026, that seemed to conclude, at least to me,  that many of a trustee’s ‘old-time’ fiduciary duties are disappearing with the advent of the modern trust as states across the nation, update their trust laws to ‘entice’ trust business. Are we fast approaching a time when there are no fiduciary duties that constrain a trustee?

Cryptocurrency is a highly risky investment. Cryptocurrency that is part of the decedent’s estate or trust poses many challenges to the fiduciary to consider before accepting any appointment.

Creating a trust for spouse may continue to be a sound estate planning strategy after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.  However, rather than create a SLAT, which is a grantor trust for income tax purposes, an alternate strategy might be to intentionally create a non-grantor trust for the donor’s spouse- a SLANT.

These uniform laws, and many that were not mentioned, reflect a strong desire to bring consistency and predictability to the law, especially regarding the rules that apply to estate planning

During its growth period the funds held in a Trump Account are not supposed to be accessible, with only a couple of exceptions to this general rule.