The IRS has released their inflation adjusted numbers for 2014. The estate tax exclusion has gone up to $5.34m for 2014.  The annual gift exclusion remains at $14,000. Below is the text straight from the IRS website: 2014 Inflation Adjustments IR-2013-87, Oct. 31, 2013 WASHINGTON — For tax year 2014, the Internal Revenue Service announced […]

A great article in Private Wealth magazine quotes yours truly!  It is an article about the people that made large gifts at the end of 2012 to take advantage of the $5.12m federal gift tax exemption. Did any of them have second thoughts when the law was extended in the wee hours on January 1, […]

I recently saw a link to this New York Times article on volunteer travel. It’s not cheap to travel around the world and help people but, for people that can afford it, I can not imagine a better way to plan for your family’s future! Here’s the article for your reading pleasure. LINK

If President Obama’s 2014 budget is any prediction of the future the 2013 “permanent” estate tax law changes are not very permanent. Or, put another way, only politicians would call them permanent!  I have read, in recent days, that President Obama is proposing going back to 2013 estate tax levels. That would mean a $3.5m […]

The 2013 report on America’s most advisor friendly trust companies was released last week.  Here is a link to the full article.  The article has a lot of informative information about working with a trust company and some of the differences of using trust companies in different states. Also, in that article is a list of […]

The government has come up with a “permanent” estate tax solution. Does that mean you can get rid of your family limited partnerships and LLCs? What about your irrevocable trusts? There are a lot of good reasons for them! Today we will hit on a few reasons why you should keep your family limited partnerships […]

Our office did a lot of advanced estate planning late in the year. We helped clients give away tens of MILLIONS of dollars, without tax, through mediums such as family limited liability companies (FLPs), irrevocable trusts, and tenancy in common agreements.  Most experts thought the January 1, 2013 date would come with a lower gift […]

The folks in DC are still twiddling their thumbs, posturing, or just out playing golf!? So nothing new has developed out there and thus the fiscal cliff is coming. The loss of the greatest gift and estate tax exemption of my lifetime is about to sunset into history. Will we look back on 2011 and […]

Each year my law school classmate, Steve Oshins, puts out a list of the top states to use for a “dynasty trust” and for a asset protection trusts. He just released his dynasty trust rankings. A dynasty trust is a trust designed to live as long as possible, from generation to generation, or a “Rockefeller […]