I recently read an article on IRAs which was a helpful reminder that some of the mistakes that are often made with IRAs cannot be ‘fixed.’ Since IRAs usually comprise a large part of our clients’ estates, we need to be vigilant as to how those IRAs are administered and how withdrawals are taken from […]

For decades, the common law clearly held that an individual could not transfer his or her assets to a trust and retain the enjoyment of those transferred assets and prevent their creditors from reaching those same assets. That longstanding rule all changed with Michigan’s 2017 Qualified Dispositions in Trust Act which has, in general, received […]

A pet trust is a unique type of trust more technically called a purpose trust.  At common law they were called an honorary trust. A conventional trust has three requirements: (i) a trustee; (ii) property; and (iii) a human beneficiary. Even if humans may only incidentally benefit from the purpose trust, e.g. the caretaker of […]

Take-Away Message: While many clients await the promised tax law ‘reform’ from a Republican-controlled Congress, there are still many  basic estate planning techniques that can be exploited to shift wealth gift-tax free and with virtually no cost or risk to the client. One of the easiest  of these techniques is an interest-free loan, or a […]

As you know, Michigan’s Legislature adopted its first version of an asset protection trust last December. The technical name for the statute is the Qualified Dispositions In Trust Act. This Act is highly relevant to us at Greenleaf Trust since it requires as a statutory condition the use of a corporate trustee which conducts business […]

At Monday’s TRO meeting the discussion centered, in part, on holding residential real estate in trust. I thought I might add to that discussion. Take-Aways:  (i) Lots of issues come up when real estate is held in trust, including the possibility of uncapping taxable values of the real estate, the trustee’s liability from activities or […]

Take-Away: Greenleaf Trust (GLT) is often selected to act as trustee of a trust. GLT must serve in an impartial manner with respect to all of the beneficiaries of the trust, that’s both current and remainder trust beneficiaries, a fact that is often overlooked by settlors and  individual co-trustees. The implications of acting impartially  can […]

It’s that time of the year when our attention turns to income taxes and we renew our annual search for ways to minimize the amounts that we must pay in income taxes, if not now, in future years. That same search applies to trustees of irrevocable trusts. Problem: We all know that irrevocable trusts are […]

I chuckled this morning when Wendy described the Heckerling Institute speaker’s description of a Durable Power of Attorney as creating a “license to steal.” Sadly, for the most part I agree with that generalization. Most parents are unwilling to view their child, or grandchild named as their agent under a Durable Power of Attorney, as […]

There is a lot of uncertainty these days that surround the ability of a  client to claim valuation discounts for transfers  in a family setting due to the IRS’s proposed IRC 2704 Regulations. Some commentators claim that these proposed valuation Regulations that greatly impact valuation discounts when entity interests [e.g. corporate stock, limited partnership interests, […]