California Prop 19 Passed, Urgent Action Recommended
Barring any assistance from a Kraken tentacle or two, it looks like California’s Prop 19 passed. Many families will be negatively affected and you should contact us right away for preliminary legal advice on whether you might benefit from taking immediate...SECURE Act: How It Will Affect You and the Beneficiaries of Your Retirement Accounts
Dear Clients and Students, On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act). The SECURE Act, which is effective January 1, 2020. The Act is the most impactful legislation affecting...President Trump Signs HUGE Tax Increase on Families (SECURE Act)
Yesterday with all eyes focused on impeachment, President Trump signed into law the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, part of the 1,700 page, $1.4 trillion Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (H.R. 1865, as amended)....Create a Dynasty Trust before Window Slams Shut
Dynasty trusts may be a tough sell when it comes to some millenials. How long did AOC say we have, twelve years? On the other hand, clients who are sane may benefit from acting now to create a dynasty trust before the window closes in 2026 — or perhaps...Kiplinger’s State-by-State Guide to Taxes
You may find Kiplinger’s updated tax map surprising: Click on any state in the map below for a detailed summary of state taxes on income, property, and everything you buy. Check out our slideshows below, including our picks for the 10 most tax-friendly and the...It Pays to Be Ruthless When Killing GRATs
Using quantitative analysis, we’ll show that the grantor’s choice is almost always clear: If her two-year GRAT is funded with marketable securities and is underwater at all prior to the first annuity date, she should cut her losses and start a new GRAT. That...Nearly brain-dead woman survives after being removed from life support
UPDATE: Every few months I see a story like the one below, and I try to make the time to blog it. However a few months after posting the story below, I had a client in my office relating a very personal and emotional story at least as amazing as any other such story...The Beneficiary Controlled Trust
Outright distributions, even if staged at various ages, signify outdated planning. The Beneficiary Controlled Trust, pioneered by my friend Steve Oshins and his father, fills the gap between outright distribution and extreme asset protection — very...Warren’s Wealth Tax Unconstitutional
While the estate tax is a perennial boomerang, Warren’s wealth tax tomahawk chop flies in the face of the Constitution’s prohibition on unapportioned scalping: The Constitution prohibits federal direct taxes that are not apportioned by population,...Guns and Dementia
This flawed article also makes some very good points, so i’m copying a good portion of it below. [Just note that gun ownership is NOT declining as the article states (see here, here, and here).] While discussions about guns and gun ownership are common political...Top 10 (11?) Dangers Facing Senior Citizens
Here is a great little slideshow on top estate planning priorities to avoid tragedy and missed opportunity (“Top 10 Dangers Facing Senior Citizen Clients”) which I summarize below (adding a little California-relevant detail of my own), with a link...Inside America’s Evangelical ‘purity movement’ where teen girls make pledges to their fathers to stay virgins until they get married
Sounds like a good idea, possibly for inclusion in incentive trust planning: “I want to make a promise to myself and to God that I will stay pure until I get married. “I don’t have to have sex to know that I am loved.” The Purity Movement preaches...HEET Trust Can Avoid GST Tax Heat, Teach Grandkids How to Pack Heat, and Help the NRA too!
Our Firearms Instruction and Responsible Stewardship Trust (F.I.R.S.T. Family Trust) takes many forms as it is custom like all our planning, but one variant involves a Health and Education Exclusion Trust. This type of trust allows you to give much greater...Should An Aging Parent Transfer the House to Her Kids?
This Virginia attorney writes a very good article summarizing some of the problems of transferring real estate to a child as an alternative to actual estate planning. Capital gains tax due to loss of basis step-up, medicaid lookback (California’s medi-cal...Ash scattering at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion a regular spectre
There are lots of ways to die embarrassed. Bad estate planning is one example; see the category above for others. Nothing can top being trampled for eternity while listening to bad puns! Seriously, have you given thought to the ultimate disposition of your remains? Do...California’s new Uniform Trust Decanting Act brings Opportunity, Risk
California recently (9/14/18) joined a few other states that have enacted the Uniform Trust Decanting Act. A lot of states have decanting statutes, several dozen in fact, but they vary greatly and this uniform act is more restrictive than those in some of the more...Financial Planning in the Age of Dementia
This article is a good overview, written by a financial advisor. However, note that powers of attorney only deal with non-trust assets and are frequently rejected by institutions so be sure that your trust is funded and adequately plans for incapacity as well...Sackler Family Behind Oxycontin Faces Lawsuits Over Opioid Abuse
In at least one sense business succession planning is like planning for guns: you need to make sure beneficiaries are responsible enough to handle the asset. Plus a little asset protection might be a good idea. Putting aside the ultimate outcome of the...Implantable defibrillators may cause dilemmas for older patients
Have you addressed this issue in your Advanced Health Care Directive? Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) differ from pacemakers, which control abnormal heart rhythms. Pacemakers prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate through electrical pulses, whereas...
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