Blog Category - Estate Planning Page 11

Name: Strauss Attorneys PLLC
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Feb

Estate Planning Document Organizer

Make preparations now to keep family and loved ones secure when you are no longer here! Have you ever seen estate planning documents that are in fancy docket covers, folded up and placed in a bank safety deposit box for safekeeping? We see them all the time. We often joke that th...

Feb

Estate Planning for Everyday Folks

One of the biggest misconceptions that I hear as an estate planning attorney is that creating an estate plan is just for the wealthy. The timeworn saying that the only two things that are inevitable in this world are death and taxes never had a $ sign or dollar amount in the say...

Feb

Does the New Tax Act Reduce the Income Tax Benefits of Giving to Charity and How to Encourage Larger Donations?

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which became effective on January 1, 2018, affects almost every area of income tax law, including charitable giving. An individual’s cost to donate money to charity has traditionally been reduced by the tax benefits afforded charitable deductions under s...

Feb

North Carolina Increases Attacks Against the Estates of Long Term Care Medicaid Recipients

The Department of Health and Human Services at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved an amendment to North Carolina’s State Medicaid Plan under Title XIX of the Social Security Act effective as of June 1, 2017. In these changes North Carolina has formalized a ch...

Feb

Estate Planning Opportunities Arise with Passage of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which came into effect on January 1, 2018, is the most significant overhaul of the tax code since 1986. Although it was meant to simplify the tax code, it is very complex and will undoubtedly be subject to ongoing modifications and interpretation...

Feb

Using Life Insurance instead of an Internal Revenue Code Section 529 Qualified Tuition Program

Grandparents are often very fond of establishing savings accounts intended for grandchildren’s education. If they can do so with tax advantages, it is even better! Frequently a grandparent will consider starting a Section 529 Savings Plan for the grandchild because financial advi...

Feb

2018 Estate Tax and Gift Tax Changes

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. ” Yogi Berra With the recently passed tax bill there is finally an official pronouncement from the IRS on the 2018 estate and gift tax exemptions. The IRS announced in October of this year that the gifting exemption bot...

Feb

Value is in the Eye of The Holder and the IRS Views Things Differently

Just as beauty is in the eye of the holder, it is often said that value is in the eye of the holder since it is a relative term and depends upon the context. In estate planning, the great majority of IRS challenges to wealth transfers focuses on hard to value assets. The New York...

Feb

The Tax Benefits of Educational Trusts

Use of standalone Educational Trusts – those created specifically for the educational (and sometimes medical) expenses of children and grandchildren – is far less common since the ready availability of 529 Plans. 529 Plans have contribution limitations (varying by state) that are...

Feb

Estate Planning in the Face of Divorce

No doubt the commencement of a divorce is unsettling, chaotic, and emotionally draining. But that said, divorces happen in stages. Separation precedes the divorce, and there is often even a period before separation where the inevitable becomes apparent and you’ve made a decision ...

Feb

Will Caveats vs. Full Scale Lawsuits

In the recent case of Finks v. Middleton (N. C. App. 2016), we saw the court wrestle with an issue that has become all too common. This case arose from a bitter sibling dispute between a brother and sister. Mother had executed a will in 2009 passing her assets equally to three chi...

Feb

Keeping Beneficiaries “Happy” Leads to Punitive Damage Award

In April 2017, I was made aware of a case arising out of Mississippi where a corporate trustee was the trustee of a trust left for the benefit of a widow. The case discussed at length how far the trustee went to conceal from the trust beneficiary the fact that the trust corpus wa...

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