This article begins a four-part series on the choices you must make to complete a comprehensive estate plan. For those, who can’t wait that long, the website includes all of this information in a white paper. The first stage of ...
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The simplest form of will for a married couple basically says: “I give, devise, and bequeath everything I own to my beloved spouse if my spouse survives me. If my spouse does not survive me, I … .” Estate planning ...
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Many clients and potential clients call after the death of a loved one and ask if a full probate administration is necessary. The answer depends on how the loved one owned his or her assets. Some general rules follow:

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All of the commercials tell us that the New Year is the time to get organized. It’s also the time to get in shape but that’s a topic for someone else’s blog. Here are some tips for getting organized.

• Review your ...
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Regardless of religious beliefs, the end of the calendar year marks a time for family get-togethers and plans for the future. This week’s blog will detour from the normal fare of technical estate and trust law and look at the ...
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Most wills have special provisions covering what estate and trust lawyers call tangible personal property. The best way to describe it is that it includes anything that is not permanently affixed to real estate and that can be touched. This ...
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The IRS has recently issued three significant updates. They include a Revenue Procedure, a Notice, and Proposed Regulations. The first, Rev. Proc. 2018-57, released Nov. 15, 2018, provides the inflation-adjusted numbers for various tax exemptions, limits, etc. Four major ones ...
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Last week’s post discussed gift-giving in general with a promise to look more closely at gifts to charity. Gifts to charity aren’t governed by the gift tax rules but by the income tax rules. Essentially, giving to charity is deemed ...
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As the year-end holidays approach, many of us are thinking about giving gifts to our family, friends, charities, and even our employees. Tax law has rules that affect this generosity. In the tax law, a gift is marked by “detached ...
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DAPTs are trusts established under the laws of a state such as Delaware, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Ohio, or Alaska that allows self-settled spendthrift trusts. Historically, one could not protect one’s own assets from one’s own creditors by transferring them to ...
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