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Estate planning is an ongoing process and is about much more than reducing taxes—it’s about ensuring your family is provided for, your business can continue, and your charitable goals are achieved. Having a plan that reflects your current financial and family situation, and regularly reviewing it to ensure it fits any changes in your ci...

The death of a loved one is a difficult and emotional time for a family. There is often additional stress if you are appointed as the executor of the will and trustee of your family’s trusts, especially if the deceased had been the sole manager of substantial family assets and wealth. For an untrained person, it can be a daunting role. For these re...

The metaphorical glass slipper represents the combined interpersonal dynamics of your family and loved ones, your individual passions, goals, hopes and dreams, along with the complexity of your family’s estate plan. When combining the characteristics of your family with the complexity of your estate plan, the result is a unique dynamic with s...

For years, owners of family-controlled companies have taken advantage of applicable valuation discounts to advance their objectives in transferring wealth and company ownership to future generations in a tax efficient manner. On August 2, the Treasury Department issued proposed regulations under Internal Revenue Code Section 2704 to curb the use of...

The federal government proposed sweeping new tax rules earlier this month that would dramatically affect family businesses, investment partnerships and other entities. These rules, which could become final and binding as early as the end of 2016, would artificially inflate the value of interests in family entities for gift and estate tax purposes. ...

Recently the IRS released proposed regulations under Chapter 14 of the Internal Revenue Code that would severely limit—if not eliminate—the application of valuation discounts, including lack of marketability and minority discounts, to interests in closely held family entities for gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax purpos...

Proposed regulations covering the valuation of family controlled entities for transfer tax purposes—12 years in the making—were published by the IRS on August 4, 2016. If newly proposed IRS Regulations are finalized in their current form, nearly all valuation discounts on family controlled entities will be eliminated. Given the December...

The long-awaited and much-speculated about regulations to Section 2704 were issued in early August 2016. As issued, the proposed regulations expand the scope and reach of section 2704 to preclude use of various structural techniques to artificially suppress the value of interests in entities transferred by taxpayers or owned by them at death. The I...

Under the IRS’s proposed new regulations, they would permanently and profoundly change estate planning for families that own a controlling interest in a privately held corporation, partnership, or limited liability company. The IRS has requested comments on the proposed regulations by November 2, 2016, and will hold a hearing on December 1, 2...

As the nation’s population grows older and more Americans are living longer, cognitive impairment of an individual is likely to become a challenge for more and more families. When a family member is diagnosed with conditions such as dementia or Alzheimer’s, it may already be too late to have an up-to-date estate plan in place. The ramif...

It is an unfortunate fact of life that, as we age, our cognitive powers often decline. To assist people as they reach this stage in their lives, states provide a mechanism by which a person’s friends and family may petition a court to declare him or her incapacitated, and for the court to appoint a guardian to manage his or her affairs. While...

When done well, a trustee’s service can have a profoundly positive impact on a family; when done poorly, a trustee’s service can create or exacerbate fissures within a family, dissipate family wealth, create personal liability for the trustee, and create a public spectacle that sullies the family’s good name and reputation. For key employees in fam...

The rules of the game in estate planning have changed. No longer can planners be so focused on the estate tax liability. They now must be equally focused on income taxes. In the past, taxpayers were willing to give up a step-up in basis at death in order to reduce or eliminate estate taxes. That is often no longer a good trade. With a smaller diffe...

A great deal of focus has been placed on the next generation of business leaders, beneficiaries, and philanthropists. Rarely discussed, however, is the next generation of trustees that will guide them through so many crucial life decisions. Serving as trustee is a natural extension of an estate planning role, and the next generation of trustees kno...

Recently proposed IRS changes to reduce or eliminate valuation discounts could dramatically increase the transfer tax cost of shifting property to members of your family in the future. The loss of valuation discounts is of significant concern for high-net-worth individuals for whom federal transfer taxes are an issue. It’s possible that some ...