Listen to our new Radio Ad
Check out our new radio ad, commencing today on the Andy Caldwell Show, K-NEWS 98.5 FM…best talk radio on the Central Coast! Posted with permission of the Andy Caldwell Show and Dimes Media. Click here: Script: Ronald Reagan warned us: “Freedom is never more...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...92-year-old refuses assisted living, shoots and kills son
I know, I know: “From my cold dead hands!” But isn’t it better to have a plan worked out with family — for guns, for long term care, for a bunch of things? Blessing had reportedly concealed two pistols in the pockets of her robe and then...Life Insurance Planning After Tax Reform
In addition to changes in life insurance purchase reporting requirements and basis calculation, the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act brings the following changes to life insurance planning: The doubling of the estate tax exemption will eliminate the need for most...This is Spinal Tap: Gang Steals Spinal Fluid from Women
Why is it that Muslim countries seem to figure so prominently in black market organ trafficking, and human trafficking in general? Non-consensual spinal tap — more reason to have a good health care directive these days. Pakistani police have arrested four...FPC 20180327: Property Tax Reassessment
One of the hidden costs of cheap estate planning is the unexpected and very unpleasant surprise of property tax reassessment. We’ll focus on this topic at our Family Protection Clinic (aka estate planning seminar) lunch meeting on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. (Our...FPC 20180313: Flexibility to Avoid Taxes & Gun Control
When it comes to taxes and gun control, it’s hard to keep up with Sacramento and DC. One way is to have your estate planning attorney on speed dial. A smarter way is to have that attorney draft with flexibility in mind, so you can have peace of mind. We’ll focus...FPC 20180306: Health Care Directives
When you are down for the count, who will be calling the shots for you? You can control what happens, if you know about advance health care directives. We’ll focus on this topic at our Family Protection Clinic (aka estate planning seminar) lunch meeting on...FPC 20180213: Blended Families & Remarriage
Often when I meet with blended families, they already sense the need for special planning due to their situation but are not aware of the many alternatives. Traditional families often overlook the very significant possibility, even probability in many cases,...FPC 20180130: Asset Protection
You’ve heard a lot about asset protection in recent years — why so much talk about asset protection? We’ll focus on this topic at our Family Protection Clinic (aka estate planning seminar) lunch meeting on Tuesday, January 30, 2018. (Our weekly seminar...FPC 20180123: Inherited IRA Protection
For many families, a large portion of the estate rests in a retirement plan which, on its own and without further planning, is essentially a separate estate plan with assets left completely unprotected. How do you protect and preserve the inheritance of retirement...Clawback Under New Tax Law
Under either formulation of purpose, that is, the “unified” approach or the “fairness” approach, in issuing its regulations, the IRS would be compelled to use the basic exclusion amount in effect the time of the decedent’s death for purpose of computing the...Tax Act Signed — what does it mean for Estate Planning?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act((In both the House and Senate versions, the bill was called the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” Due to a last-minute change in response to a procedural issue, the official title was changed to “To provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles...A modest proposal re estate tax: Get self-defense training!
The expected new Tax Cut and Jobs Act (not the official title anymore, but i’m sticking with it) doubles the applicable exclusion amount for estate tax but reverts to current law on January 1, 2026. That sunset provision reminds me of this funny old video...Self-Harming Britain Killed its Militia Ethic, Now it Attacks its own Trust Ethic
America is more British than modern day Britain. British lords seized power from King John in 1215, forced him to sign the Magna Carta allowing a right to bear arms and the militia ethic was borne in the English-speaking world. But the Brits killed their own militia...Uniform Voidable Transactions Act may DOOM Asset Protection as we know it
UVTA is an attempt by trial lawyers and pointy-headed liberal law professors to resolve conflict of laws in favor of the state from which transfers are made, effectively ending asset protection as we know it. This is obviously not supported by our legal...Looks Like Aaron Hernandez Set Up Asset Protection Trust for 5 Yr Old Daughter
This should be an interesting case to watch, depending on the timing of the transfer to trust and his solvency at that time. Not sure, but i believe Massachusetts has yet to pass the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act, a variant of which California passed...Strategic Estate Planning in Uncertain Times
Don’t just sit there, plan but plan flexibly! Article here: Your clients may think that their best course of action is to hold tight until the political landscape becomes clear. This is an attitude that could cost them. Now is not the time to wait for...Rumors of Trust Demise Greatly Exaggerated
Some of the reasons listed here: Despite the proposed high estate, GST and gift tax exemptions and whether there’s repeal, trusts will remain extremely popular for many non-tax reasons, including: family governance/succession/education; ability to override the...Asset Protection: Greenbacks Flee California to Sanctuary States
A huge sea change in California asset protection law is sending assets to sanctuary states, like Nevada, more willing to protect those assets than creditor-friendly California. That other states better protect funds in self-settled trusts is old news. Many states,...House GOP Tax Plan Avoids Carryover Basis Regime
So far, the House GOP’s proposed tax plan avoids the carryover basis regime that would have been necessary if it would have imposed a capital gains tax at death to replace the estate and generation skipping transfer taxes, as the Trump campaign seemed to favor....OJ Simpson Suspected of Having Offshore Accounts
Story here reminds us that OJ Simpson is suspected of squirreling away millions in offshore accounts. (One of OJ Simpson’s pals seems to have spilled the beans in a recording seconds after Simpson’s ill-fated robbery in Vegas. Cook believes it is possible...Mother discovers daughter’s cremains are actually dog remains
My suggestion, for anyone wishing to go as far as DNA testing to be sure of the identity of remains, is to avoid cremating those remains. The couple has since received a new box that the crematory said is their daughter ashes, but they hope a DNA test can...Young men giving up on marriage: ‘Women aren’t women anymore’
Fewer young men in the US want to get married than ever, while the desire for marriage is rising among young women, according to the Pew Research Center. Pew recently found that the number of women 18-34 saying that having a successful marriage is one of the most...How To Invest In Art
People who collect for the long term may get more for their money by adapting the strategies of value investing. That means forgetting contemporary and postwar works and looking for unfashionable or neglected pieces with intrinsic value. “We need people to...Carmack v. Reynolds: California Supreme Court Rules on Asset Protection Trusts
SCOCA has ruled that a creditor/predator can reach up to the entire amount of trust sums due and payable to a beneficiary, plus up to 25% of specified future payments, underscoring the crucial value of having trustees with full discretion over distributions....California Supreme Court Holds Localities Can Apply Documentary Transfer Tax to Transfers of Interests in Property-Holding Entities
The California Supreme Court, in a 6-1 decision, has held that a city or county may impose documentary transfer tax on the transfer of the ownership interests in a legal entity that owns real property located in the locality. In 926 North Ardmore Avenue, LLC v....How Nevada Became America’s Safest State for Wealth Protection
He concluded, “The court did the right thing. They said, listen, our legislature determined what the public policy was in our state and they specifically included it. It’s a clear statute.” That’s settled in Nevada now, providing protection to Nevada...Where did baby boomers go wrong? This generation isn’t financially prepared for retirement
Baby boomers, or those born between 1946 and 1964, expect they’ll need $658,000 in their defined contribution plans by the time they retire, but the average in those employer-sponsored plans is $263,000, according to a survey of 900 investors by financial...Rev Proc 2017-34 simplifies getting extension for portability election
Rev. Proc. 2017-34 SECTION 1. PURPOSE This revenue procedure provides a simplified method for certain taxpayers to obtain an extension of time under § 301.9100-3 of the Procedure and Administration Regulations to make a “portability” election under §...Latest State To Repeal Estate Tax: Delaware
Despite facing a $400 million budget hole, Delaware is the latest state to repeal its estate tax—as of Jan. 1, 2018. Democratic Governor John Carney Jr. signed a stand-alone estate tax repeal bill today, just two days after signing the 2018 state budget, which...
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