Take-Away: Trusts that give the trustee the discretion to spray income among a group of trust beneficiaries is a highly flexible tool in which to reduce that income’s exposure to high federal income tax rates imposed on irrevocable trusts. That extraordinary flexibility can, however, cause tension for both the trustee and among trust’s beneficiaries. Clearly describing […]

Take-Away: The Final IRS Regulations with regard to the 2017 Tax Act’s temporary increase in the federal gift, estate and GST tax exemptions were published in late November, 2019. Those Final Regulations provide helpful answers to two concerns that were raised by the temporary increase in an individual’s applicable exemption amount. However, the Final Regulations  […]

Take-Away: For the last several years the focus of estate planning has been on income tax saving strategies moreso than estate tax saving strategies. With the present recession much of the capital gains that those income tax strategies had hoped to avoid with a step-up in income tax basis on the owner’s death were suddenly […]

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 […]