Trusts & Estates Newsletter

Issue 3 / Winter 2011

• Going, Going, Gone? The new law known as The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the “Act”) might just be the greatest opportunity for affluent Americans to transfer significant amounts of wealth to their descendants without incurring gift and estate taxes. However, the provisions of this law only remain in effect through 2012.
• The Atkins’ Method of Trimming Trustee Fat The removal of a trustee from a trust can be a difficult and time consuming process for both beneficiaries and trustees alike.
• Now What?: Thoughts on Gift and Estate Planning After 2010 The sweeping changes to the gift and estate tax laws resulting from the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Authorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the “Act”) create some new opportunities and new considerations for gift and estate tax planning.
• Exculpatory Clauses, Or The Few Words That Could Make A Big Difference Even the most prudent and trustworthy of trustees may find themselves a defendant in a lawsuit brought by a beneficiary who is disappointed or disgruntled or both. The volatility of the markets and the natural human instinct to second-guess and ascribe blame when bad things happen can combine to produce such lawsuits.
• Timing is Everything: A Lesson in Asset Protection Planning Asset protection is very popular in the estate planning arena right now, hardly surprising given the current state of our economy. Asset protection is a form of wealth protection planning, designed to protect one’s assets from future creditors and financial disaster.
• U.S. Estate and Gift Planning for Non-Citizens It goes without saying that the laws governing the U.S. estate and gift tax system are complex and the taxes and penalties for mistakes are high. For a non-U.S. citizen (“non-citizen”) the U.S. estate and gift tax system is even more onerous and requires a much higher degree of awareness.
• Heading for the Hills Recently, U.S. taxpayers have displayed increased anxiety relating to a number of issues, not the least of which is the growing uncertainty concerning U.S. income and estate taxes.
• Fiduciaries Beware! Life Insurance Trusts and The Florida Prudent Investor Rule Married couples who have not made any prior taxable gifts can now pass the first $10,000,000 of their wealth tax free to their children without incurring a federal estate tax.For tax years before 2010, many Florida residents used life insurance trusts to help pay the federal estate taxes.
• Florida’s Answer to Deathbed Marriage Florida law now empowers family members to challenge deathbed marriages. Previously this type of marriage resulted in the decedent’s property going to the recently married surviving spouse rather than to the decedent’s lineal descendants and other family members.
• TRENDS IN PHILANTHROPY A recent study about the trends in charitable giving for the year 2009 sheds some important light on how the past two years of economic turmoil has affected philanthropic giving by affluent families. It should come as no surprise that charitable giving declined in the year(s) studied.
• SIXTY FEET The best part of my job sometimes is simply listening to my clients’ passionate interests in sustaining diverse charitable causes within their community and then passing these interests onto other clients. It thus came as a surprise to me when I learned about a unique charitable endeavor in Uganda (not exactly a country on my radar screen) called SIXTY FEET* (www.sixtyfeet.org) while travelling on an extended business trip in Europe with of all people one of my Atlanta-based partners at SGR, Scott Harty.