Take-Away: A recent decision by the Alaska Supreme Court, Toni 1 Trust vs. Wacker, 2018 WL 1125033 (Alaska, March 2, 2018),  created some  anxiety with regard to the viability of self-settled asset protection trusts, much like Michigan’s Qualified Dispositions in Trust Act. This court decision may not be the death-knell to asset protection trusts as […]

Take-Away: Hardship distribution rules from qualified plan retirement accounts [not IRAs] changed in February 2018  immediately on the heels of the 2017 Tax Reduction Act. One proposed change with the 2017 Tax Reduction Act that got dropped at the last minute just became the law in February 2018. This is just one more example of […]

Take-Away: The 2017 Tax Act  forces us to look at planning with a new perspective. The new focus is on saving income taxes, and less on saving estate and GST taxes with each individual now having a $11.2 million transfer tax exemption. In particular, how do we help clients to ‘work around’ the doubled standard […]

Take-Away: After a relatively ‘dubious’ history of success in the courts over the past few years, there is now one ‘successful’ published court decision with regard to the effectiveness of an asset protection trust. This reported decision comes out of Nevada. While 17 states, including Michigan, have some form of asset protection trust, there persists […]

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act (the 2017 Tax Act) provided several surprises, although I am not sure that it actually delivered that much simplification to a complex tax code as was promised. One big surprise was to make alimony or spousal support no longer tax deductible by the payer or taxable to the recipient. […]

Take-Away: Grantor trusts are  popular estate planning tools these days. They are used to shift appreciating assets out of the grantor’s estate without incurring capital gains (and estate freeze)  and they require the grantor-settlor to continue to pay the income taxes on the trust’s income (and indirect form of a non-taxable gift to the trust […]

Take-Away: Clients should be encouraged to review, and update, their Durable Powers of Attorney for financial management purposes in light of the new federal gift tax exemption amounts and rights that may  they may hold under estate planning documents. Background: A durable power of attorney is a power of attorney where the principal designates another […]

Take-Away: This is a short follow-up to Carlene’s presentation yesterday morning at the CCT meeting. I want to stress that per capita by each generation is now the default rule of construction under the Michigan Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC.) This was a fundamental change that occurred in the law in 2000 when Michigan […]

Take-Away: We know in the 2017 Tax Act that Backdoor Roth Conversions were legitimized by Congress. There was also a great sigh of relief when the Act failed to change required minimum distributions rules for inherited Roth IRAs.  There are a couple of more ‘tricks’ regarding Roth IRAs that you need to keep in mind […]

Take-Away: As we continue to help clients understand their estate plans, it is important to keep in mind that often a named beneficiary will disclaim, or sometimes release, an interest in an estate, trust, or beneficiary designation. Knowing the distinction between a disclaimer and release is critical when you factor the gift tax consequences into […]