Weighing Estate Tax “Portability” Against the Bypass Trust
NOVEMBER 9, 2015 VOLUME 22 NUMBER 41 [Note: this article was originally written in 2015. Since then, the estate tax numbers have significantly increased. The structure we explain may still be valid, but not necessarily the numbers.] Here’s a challenging problem for lawyers who focus on estate planning: how can we explain federal estate tax […]
What Survivor Must Do When Trust Mandates Split on First Death
SEPTEMBER 14, 2015 VOLUME 22 NUMBER 33 Once in a while we read an appellate court decision that nicely addresses a subject which isn’t the issue before the court. A recent Arizona Court of Appeals case illustrates this phenomenon nicely. The legal issue was technical and would appeal only to lawyers — and probably only […]
How Increased Estate Tax Exemptions Affect Existing Trusts
SEPTEMBER 29, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 35 A lot has changed in American estate planning in the last decade (as you may have already heard). Estate tax thresholds have increased to (as of 2014) $5.34 million. On top of that figure, there is a relatively new concept of “portability” of the estate tax exemption, so […]
Bypass Trusts, Disclaimer Trusts and Portability in Estate Planning
MAY 6, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 18 Last week we wrote about questions we often hear from our clients in the wake of big changes to the federal estate tax structure. Almost immediately we heard from a reader asking about portability and disclaimer trusts; our reader suggested we try to explain the two concepts and […]
Some Questions We’re Being Asked a Lot Lately
APRIL 29, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 17 You probably have read that Congress has made big changes to the estate tax system. More accurately, Congress has made “permanent” the big (but piecemeal and temporary) changes introduced over the past decade. We hear a lot of questions from our clients about what those changes mean. Here […]
Tax Identification Numbers for Trusts After Death of Spouse
MARCH 26, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 12 Here at Fleming & Curti, PLC, we keep tabs on what brings people to our website. We look at referring pages, at search terms and at a variety of other items. We are intrigued by what persistently tops the search-engine list. The most common search? It’s some variation […]
Different Types of Trusts for Different Purposes
JANUARY 17, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 2 We frequently are asked to explain the differences between different types of trusts, or to analyze a trust with no more information than its type. Confusion about the differences is widespread, and we hope to provide a little clarity to consideration of trust types. Before we embark, we […]
