The opportunity for families to transfer a significant amount of wealth from now through the end of 2012 is unprecedented. Certainly there are many technical or quantitative issues to consider, but don’t forget to focus on the more qualitative issues, especially in preparing your family for the receipt of the assets.
Investors are well advised to take into account the interest rate environment when considering wealth transfer options. Interest rates are important when establishing trusts, reviewing existing estate plans, and lending money to family members. The current rates used to value wealth transfers are near historic lows.
This brief client alert highlights provisions of key 2012 estate, gift, and generation skipping transfer tax provisions and strategies for wealthy individuals to consider in their estate planning.
This Educational Insights defines the most common types of trusts used in asset management and estate planning, and highlights their key features.
This quarterly newsletter features the articles, "Estate Planning Key to Succession Planning," Exploring the Ins and Outs of Net Operating Losses," and "Tax Tips."
More and more states are recognizing same-sex marriage. Although marriage and its legal implications are governed by state law, for federal purposes the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines marriage as a relationship between one woman and one man. This inconsistency creates some tax planning challenges for same sex couples.
For the couple planning marriage, the focus is often on the union itself and not the meshing of financial assets, rights, and obligations. In a time when many couples are marrying later in life, have children and other financial responsibilities from a previous marriage, or have considerable assets that they want to safeguard, a prenuptial agreement can be a helpful planning tool.
This Educational Insights discusses the unique estate tax and insurance implications of owning real estate in multiple jurisdictions.
A properly structured, funded, and invested dynasty trust can be a powerful tool in achieving significant tax savings on the transfer of wealth across generations. This paper discusses the tax benefits of dynasty trusts under Delaware law as well as funding and investment management strategies to consider.
Proposals to reduce federal debt have largely missed the mark. That is certainly the case when it comes to suggestions to replace tax-exempt municipal bonds with taxable alternatives or federally subsidized tax credit options. These alternatives not only produce much less in revenue for the US Treasury than most assume, they also result in a loss of local control, diminish access to jobs]producing capital, and put taxpayers on the hook with debt gguaranteesh reminiscent of the subprime mortgage era.