Take-Away: Merely because the trustee possesses the authority in a trust instrument to change the trust’s situs does not mean that the trustee can also change the trust’s governing law. These concepts are not the same. Context: Much has been written about several states that now regularly compete for trust business. A month does not […]

Take-Away:  When a married couple own a closely held business and they plan to exploit the opportunity to pay federal estate taxes associated with that business in installments over several years, it would be wise for the deceased owner of the business to reconsider the IDGT lifetime sale strategy, and to use a QTIP Trust […]

With all the headline news about the non-repeal of the Affordable Care Act, it is easy to overlook (or ignore) some of the tools that are currently available to help middle and low income individuals pay for their health care like contributions to a health savings account. Take-Away Message: Name a surviving spouse, if possible, […]

There seems to be continued interest in gaining a working knowledge of IRA distribution rules. In particular it appears some assumptions that revolve around inherited IRAs  may not be quite as accurate as we would like. This confusion often occurs when we mix our regular IRA distribution rules with those distribution rules that apply to […]

Take-Away: I wrote recently that there may be a back-door approach to attack a Michigan Qualified Dispositions in Trust if a creditor asserts that the Trust is nothing more than the alter-ego of the Trust settlor. A highly respected commentator recently concluded that such an attack based on alter ego judicial equitable remedy may not […]

As I promised at this morning’s meeting, what follows is a summary of the Michigan Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Act). I apologize in advance for it not being riveting reading! Take-Away:  Fiduciaries now have access to digital assets as authorized by the Act. It is important that the governing instrument that authorizes the […]

Take-Away: An estate tax apportionment clause is an important provision in a Will or Trust when there is a second marriage, children with different parents, or an extensive use of non-probate transfers techniques like ladybird deeds, TODs, PODs, and IRAs. Without careful allocation of federal and state estate taxes associated with these beneficiaries and non-probate […]

Take-Away: While an estate’s personal representative must now report to the IRS and estate beneficiaries date-of-death values for basis consistency purposes, it does not make much sense to report the value of an IRA account which has no basis. Apparently, however,  that is required under the IRS’s proposed Regulations for its new basis consistency reporting […]

Take-Away: We are all familiar with the 10% penalty that is assessed when funds are withdrawn from an IRA or qualified retirement plan account when the IRA owner or plan participant is under the age 59 ½ years.  The good news is that there are some exceptions to the imposition of this 10% penalty. The […]

Take-Away: As you have repeatedly heard from me over the last year, there has been a fundamental shift in estate planning from minimizing federal estate taxes to minimizing federal income taxes. While clients want to continue to make lifetime gifts for a variety of reasons, it is helpful to keep the income tax consequences of […]