Estate Planning
| Basic Estate Planning |
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A Great In Your Estate Planning
Grantor-retained annuity trusts (GRATs) are among today's most popular tools for transferring ownership of a closely held business while retaining income or control and reducing federal estate taxes.
With a GRAT, a business owner transfers company stock or other income-producing assets to an irrevocable trust that pays the owner a fixed income fo ...
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Basic Estate Planning
Even if your will leaves everything to your kids, a second spouse can claim what's known as an "elective share" of your estate--typically a third. (If you don't have a will, read the story on page 94.) The easiest way to avoid trouble is with a prenuptial agreement in which your spouse-to-be gives up any claim to a share. After you're married, it t ...
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Estate Planning On The Cheap
You could use software to write your own will, but here's a safer alternative
Yes, it can be painful to pay for estate planning. Lawyers charge a lot. The benefits of a plan are delayed, and you don't live to see them anyway. Who wants to spend big bucks on a plan when times are so tough and the federal estate tax is in flux?
Fewer and fewer Ame ...
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Estate Planning Tools
The decisions you make about distributing your assets when you die are deeply personal. But to make those decisions effective, you have to use the right tools--wills, which have to go through probate, and trusts, which do not. Here are several of the most common tools; all require professional advice.
REVOCABLE OR LIVING TRUST Gives fiduciary cont ...
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Estate Planning
For years, Bud and Pat Rushing ignored the need for estate planning. "You don't want to think or talk about these things because they aren't pleasant," says Pat. "And all the legalese seemed so complicated." Their lives were already filled with complications. Bud, 69, a retired insurance salesman, and Pat, 69, a clerk, had been caring for their dau ...
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Limited Liability Companies and Estate Planning
estate planning
With the widespread adoption of limited liability company acts by state legislatures, limited liability companies (LLC) have become the business organization of choice for small closely held businesses. An LLC also provides tax advantages to transfer wealth from one generation to another while allowing the donor to maintain contro ...
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| More Basic Estate Planning articles edition... |
Now Is Time for Long-Term Planning
It's true: you are just about out of time. However, according to the Financial Planning Association, Denver, Colo., it would be wise not to focus on the impending tax deadline so much as your overall retirement strategy. Here are some key moves to get your retirement in shape on a year-round basis.
Start saving. You have until April 17 to make a 2 ...
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Retiree Havens Go on Sale
EVEN IF YOU'RE a decade or more away from quitting time, you may be thinking about buying a retirement home right now. The prices for condos in popular retirement areas like Napa, Calif., and Naples, Fla., have come down 44% or more since the boom, substantially more than the average 32% that home prices have fallen nationwide, according to the lat ...
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Seven Good Reasons Credit Shelter Trusts Remain Relevant
• New provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 2010 allow a spouse to pass along any unused portion of a $5 million estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. At first glance, this "portability" of the exclusion might seem to replace the traditional method of accomplishing the same goal by funding a credit shelter trust with an exclusion amo ...
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Size Up Your Estate and Do Some Tax Planning
Barring any last-minute congressional moves, the estate tax is on the verge of making a big comeback. After a year in which estates of any size escaped federal tax, those of people who die in 2011 will currently be allowed an exemption of only $1 million, down from $3.5 million in 2009. Holdings beyond that level will be taxed at rates of up to 55 ...
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The 2010 Roth Revolution
The current year is proving to be a pivotal one for retirement savers. In 2010, law changes are initiating a Roth revolution, allowing nearly every U.S. investor to have a Roth IRA.
IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans, such as 401(k)s, offer tax-deferred savings opportunities for individuals. These options are beneficial if, at retirement ...
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The Estate Tax Cure
Joe (age 62) owns Success Co., which employs 82 people, and his son Sam runs the day-to-day operations. When Joe got the "let's-do-my-estate-plan" itch, he went to see his lawyer Lenny.
Joe told Lenny the following: His wife, Mary, is 63. They have three children and seven grandchildren. Sam, 38, is the only kid working at Success Co., which is an ...
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