“Portability” is the ability of a surviving spouse to elect to add his or her predeceased spouse’s unused estate tax exemption to their own estate tax exemption. For many clients, adoption of portability in 2010 (and making portability permanent in 2012) meant that complicated estate plans could be greatly simplified. Prior to portability, any unused…
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A recent survey prepared by The Motley Fool found that two-thirds of high-net-worth individuals are concerned about leaving their descendants too much inheritance.[1] Interestingly, the larger the inheritance received by those participating in the survey, the more likely they were to express these concerns. The predominate concerns included: Inheritance would be used irresponsibly (58.74%); Beneficiaries…
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***This article is a follow-up to a prior article from 2019 which can be found here. Life insurance is a great tool that can serve a variety of purposes. Most often, it is thought of as an income replacement/hedge against premature death to provide for one’s family, and it is certainly a great tool to…
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What are the rights of a creditor to LLC interests to satisfy their claim? That question was at issue in a recent opinion from the Alabama Supreme Court.[1] In that case, the creditor received a “charging order” (discussed below) requiring that distributions from the LLC made to the debtor be instead transferred to the clerk…
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Is your business worth more to the IRS than it is to you? Will you owe estate tax on more value than you receive? A recent tax case illustrates how this is possible.[1] It is very common, even advisable, that closely-held business owners enter into buy-sell agreements limiting transferability of interests and setting forth procedures…
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As a basic matter, creditors of a trust beneficiary generally do not have access to assets of the trust.[1] The primary exception is that creditors generally can access trust assets distributable to the settlor of the trust, such a trust being considered “self-settled.”[2] Many states have abolished this exception for trusts that satisfy certain statutory…
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