Estate Planning Red Flag
You own property jointly with your child and haven’t planned properly
There are certain estate planning strategies that, on the surface, may sound appealing. This includes owning property jointly with a child or other family member. However, in practice, these techniques can result in unwelcome outcomes that outweigh any...
Understanding the ins and outs of a Family Limited Partnership
A family limited partnership (FLP) is an estate planning tool that offers various benefits. These include centralized management of family assets, the ability to transfer wealth without ceding control, reduced gift and estate taxes, income tax savings, and asset protection. Let’s take a closer look at how an FLP works.
A Primer on Health Care Directive Terms
A comprehensive estate plan has many objectives. They include ensuring your assets are passed on to your loved ones according to your wishes while minimizing gift and estate taxes. Another equally important objective is to communicate your preferences in advance for medical care in the event you’re incapacitated and cannot express your...
Can your will be contested?
A no-contest clause can cause beneficiaries to think twice
Your will is meant to ensure that your final wishes are honored. However, it can sometimes be contested, potentially leading to lengthy legal battles and financial disputes among your heirs. Understanding when and why a will might be contested —...
Now’s the time to review your GST tax exposure
Absent congressional action this year, the federal gift and estate exemption and the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption (currently $13.99 million) are scheduled to return to their pre-2018 levels of $5 million (around $7 million when adjusted for inflation) beginning in 2026. So, it’s a good idea to consider strategies for taking...
Estate Planning Red Flag
You don’t understand the rules when splitting gifts with your spouse
Here’s a quick estate planning tip: one of the easiest ways to reduce the size of your taxable estate is to take advantage of your gift tax exclusion. For 2025, you can transfer up to $19,000 per recipient...
Revisit your buy-sell agreement in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Connelly decision
Buy-sell agreements are essential estate and succession planning tools for many family businesses and other closely held companies. These agreements, among other things, ensure that the business stays within the family or other ownership group.
Typically, this is accomplished by providing that if an owner dies or leaves the...
What’s my art collection worth?
Proper estate planning is important when accounting for works of art
If you possess paintings, sculptures and other pieces of art, they may represent a significant portion of your estate. Thus, these assets must be properly accounted for in your estate plan.
In your planning, you’ll...
Make Your Estate Plan “Letter” Perfect
Are you creating or updating your estate plan? First and foremost, you need a will that divides up your assets among beneficiaries. Then you can complement it with other documents, such as financial and health care powers of attorney and various trusts.
What about all those other vital matters...
Estate Planning Pitfall – You Haven’t Properly Funded a Trust
A trust can form the cornerstone of your estate plan, and they come in a variety of flavors. Indeed, there’s one for nearly any estate planning situation. Here’s a short list of a trust’s potential advantages: trust assets may avoid probate, provides planning flexibility, protects assets and can minimize taxes.