Take-Away: Just because a trust instrument expressly names the trust’s governing law, that choice of law may not be binding on future courts. There needs to be more than just a choice or preference expressed for a court to apply the laws of another state to the trust. Background: We live in an era when […]

Take-Away: The IRS just announced an increase in the federal transfer tax exemptions that will begin in 2018. Source:  Revenue Ruling 2017-58. Lifetime Exclusion Amount: This amount per taxpayer will increase from $5.49 million to $5.6 million (a $110,000 increase.) That means that a married couple could leave at death $11.2 million federal estate tax-free. […]

Take-Away: A little used type of irrevocable trust in dissolving a marriage is an alimony trust which is expressly authorized under the Tax Code. The income tax implications for distributions from an alimony trust are sometimes much different from a direct payment of spousal support from one former spouse to the other. These trusts may […]

Take-Away: A Bill will soon be introduced in Michigan’s legislature (if not already) to permit spouses to classify the assets held in their joint trust as community property. The advantage to spouses who own community property is that there will be a full (100%) income tax basis adjustment (a hoped for ‘stepped-up’ basis) on the […]

Take-Away: Trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property right interest may become more prevalent assets held in an estate  as we fast-forward into the digital age. A surprise to many is that this is an area where Congress has created specific property rights that preempt state property and probate rules when it comes to the transfer […]

Take-Away: The intersection of federal qualified plan retirement law and community property law is very clear. Federal law trumps state community property principles for qualified plans. But the law is much more muddled when it comes to community property rights in a spouse’s IRA. So while the law is clear with qualified plans, it is […]

Take-Away: Michigan’s two decanting statutes do not impose an affirmative duty on a trustee to decant the assets of an existing irrevocable trust to a new trust that is created by the trustee. But what if a trust is administered under the common law. Is there an implied duty to decant and what are the […]

Take-Away: Each year nationally recognized estate planning attorney Steve Oshins publishes his ranking of state legislation that is intended to provide flexibility and creditor and tax protection to irrevocable trusts. Michigan appears fairly high in a couple of ranking categories while in others is simply does not appear ranked at all. Some of those rankings […]

Take-Away: A change is soon coming for veterans who have served in the military long enough to earn a military pension. A companion change may also help those veterans who served in the military for less than 20 years. Background: The current military pension system provides a defined benefit pension for those service personnel who […]

Take-Away: If a retirement plan participant wishes to name an individual who is not their spouse as the beneficiary of their retirement account balance on death, the participant’s spouse must consent (‘waive’) their right to be named as the participant’s retirement plan account beneficiary. However, this spousal ‘waiver’ rule does not apply  to an IRA […]