On March 18, 2019, the IRS released the AFRs for April. The Section 7520 rate is 3.0%, down from 3.2% in February and March, and even lower than the 3.4% rate in January. The annual short-term, midterm and long-term rates are 2.52%, 2.55% and 2.89%. The Section 382 adjusted long-term rate is 2.19% and the…
Category: Trusts
Two Proposed Estate Tax Acts
The New Bernie Sanders Estate Tax Act In case you were wondering what Democrats are thinking about where they would like to take the estate tax laws, Thursday Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) clarified that by filing S. 309 named “For the 99.8% Act.” The act would radically modify federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes….
2019 Gift, Estate, Other Tax Numbers Announced
The unified estate and gift tax exclusion amount will increase from $11,180,000 to $11,400,000. The GST exemption will rise accordingly. The annual gift tax exclusion will remain $15,000. The special use valuation reduction limit will rise from $1,140,000 to $1,160,000. The annual exclusion for gifts to non-citizen spouses will increase from $152,000 to $155,000. The…
Woelbing Settled
Adam Wiensch, one of the attorneys representing the taxpayer in the Woelbing case, reported that the IRS has settled. In that case, Mr. and Mrs. Woelbing had created an insurance trust which held policies with a cash value of $1.6 million. The Woelbings sold $59 million of stock in Carma Laboratories (Carmex lip balm, etc.)…
Speaking June 12 to 500+ Texas Attorneys
For 39 years, the State Bar of Texas has presented a three-day seminar in June dealing with advanced estate planning topics. This year, I will be presenting on one of the featured topics: spendthrift clauses in trusts and the extent and limits of the protections such clauses offer with respect to creditors and in divorce….
ABA RPTE Spring Symposium – Hot Topics Breakfast
This edition is the first of a “few” which will be devoted to information gleaned from the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Trusts and Estates’ Spring Symposium in Washington, DC and will be my summary of a few selected sessions. Hopefully this will be of some interest to all of you. Hot Topics Breakfast Richard…
Finished Outline for Advanced Estate Planning Course
Yesterday, I finished and turned in my outline/article for the Advanced Estate Planning Course. I’ve been honored to be selected to be one of the speakers. The title of my talk is, “Extent and Limits of Spendthrift Protection – Creditors and Divorce.” For those of you who are attorneys and who will be attending the…
Asset Protection in Texas
In a recent ABA webinar, groups of attorneys from an “asset protection state” and a long-term trust state and from Texas offered their different versions of what their state laws allow terms of asset protection. While Texas does not clearly allow self-settled asset protection trusts (where you put your assets into trust and they are…
One-Year GRATs?
The regulations for grantor retained annuity trusts say that GRATs must be for a “specified term of years.” The word “years” seems to tell us that a GRAT must be for more than one year, but, then again, saying “specified term of year” is an odd phrase. Would one year be OK? It would certainly…