Take-Away: Many individuals are now establishing fully discretionary trusts for their children and grandchildren. The motivation behind these trusts are to shield the trust assets from the trust beneficiary’s creditors, and also to exclude the trust’s assets from being exposed to federal estate taxation on the trust beneficiary’s death. Often unaddressed in these discretionary trusts […]

Take-Away: The Department of Labor (DOL) on March 29, 2020 provide frequently asked questions and answers to these two Acts. There is some clarification, while still some confusion or the need for further guidance from the DOL. Key Clarification Points: COVID-19 sick leave is in addition to any and all other forms of employer or […]

Take-Away: We are well aware of the federal gift, estate and generation skipping transfer taxes that we have to deal with on a daily basis. Far fewer of us are aware of the federal inheritance tax, the federal expatriate or exit tax, or the federal transition tax imposed on foreign income. This summary should only […]

Take-Away: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) is mountainous piece of legislation, hastily put together in an attempt to address the economic and human suffering caused by the pandemic. Due to its breadth there is, and there will continue to be, considerable confusion over its scope and entitlements. Only with the passage […]

Take-Away: Several weeks ago (actually it now seems like several years ago in light of the coronavirus) a short summary was provided on how the SECURE Act permits stretch distributions from a retirement account taken by a disabled or chronically ill beneficiary. If disabled or chronically ill individual is the named beneficiary of an accumulation see-through […]

Take-Away: Michigan has two separate statutes that deal with a trustee’s ability to decant a trust’s assets to a new trust created by the trustee. While that authority exists to transfer assets from an existing trust to a new trust, several tax questions remain unanswered with regard to the trustee’s exercise of a decanting power. […]

Take-Away: As we counsel clients with how to maintain their sanity during the COVID-19 ‘lock-down’ and their sudden loss of 25% of their wealth, knowing that they are overwhelmed by anxiety and tend to compartmentalization of their problems they may act out of impulse. That is where we come in to control those impulses. We […]

Take-Away: In a period of large federal gift tax exemptions, it should not come as a surprise that many individuals are encouraged to take advantage of those large transfer tax exemptions by making substantial lifetime gifts. That said, behind those lifetime gifts is the need to have a working understanding of Michigan’s Voidable Transactions Act […]

Take-Away: There are several tax traps when S corporate stock is the subject of a gift to charity, particularly if the S stock is used to fund a charitable remainder trust (CRT.) It may be better for the S corporation to use one of its assets as the subject of a gift to charity, as opposed […]

Take-Away: In the past we have reviewed the importance of identifying the settlor’s intent behind the creation of a trust. This focus is manifested in the Michigan Trust Code’s periodic reference to preserving a trust’s material purposes in trust modification or termination proceedings. However, the Michigan Trust Code and the Uniform Trust Code also have […]