The Developing Law of Trust Decanting
NOVEMBER 3, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 40 We first wrote about trust “decanting” in this space three years ago. Since then we’ve had occasion to revisit the topic a handful of times — most recently about six weeks ago when we wrote about modifying trusts that no longer seemed to make as much sense, since […]
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 […]
Powers of Appointment and Trust Reformation
JULY 1, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 24 Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you intend. That is hardly a novel observation, but it can have a big effect on the work you hire a lawyer to do for you. Let’s try an example. Suppose that you want to give some money to your […]
Court Avoids Deciding Fate of Unnecessary Special Needs Trust
MAY 13, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 19 We read an interesting appellate court case this week involving an Indiana special needs trust. The court’s resolution of the case was actually not all that interesting — it was dismissed on technical grounds. But the story was an interesting one, and involved a problem that we see […]
Challenge to Three-Year-Old Trust Reformation is Dismissed
JANUARY 9, 2012 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 2 With the increased emphasis on (and use of) living trusts for estate planning, we lawyers are seeing more and more cases in which an old trust needs modification. Perhaps the tax laws have changed since a parent or grandparent died. Maybe what once made sense is less defensible […]