Death requires no additional downsides. Death is almost always an inferior option to all the other alternatives that involve living. Yet, all other things being equal, some states provide estates with favorable amenities, such as mellow probate rules and an escape from state death taxes. Several jurisdictions are actively vying to become destination locations for your wealth (and the last stop for you).
How does artwork of dubious title or marketability affect the distribution of other assets of an estate? Must the estate insure the work for its value in the hands of the rightful owner or for its limited value in the estate’s possession? What level of due diligence will protect the executor and estate’s attorney from liability to beneficiaries? These answers and more uncovered by Robert L. Moshman, Esq.
The second part of Robert Moshman's Estate Analyst: The Art and Science of Disinheriting Heirs.
The most recent Estate Analyst discusses the art and science of disinheriting heirs.
Once more into the breach as we embark on what has become our annual journey to Crazy Town in a quest to cover inexplicable developments that strain reason, challenge credulity, and burst free from the shackles of logic. Once again, there is an abundance of material fitting this description.
It is not often that the Supreme Court provides a clear rule on any aspect of financial planning (or even graces our niche with a passing reference), so these occasions call for special attention.
On June 12, 2014, the Supreme Court’s decision in Clark v. Rameker clarified that an inherited IRA is not a protected retirement fund for bankruptcy purposes.
Here, we analyze the decision and its impact on planning issues and review the applicable rules and caveats that apply to inherited IRAs.
Robert L. Moshman focuses on Donald Sterling's estate in this edition of The Estate Analyst.
New statutes governing the decanting of trust assets have sprung up in 10 new jurisdictions over the past two years and the trend appears to be continuing.
Is an iPhone message a valid Will? Why do the President’s budget proposals keep returning the transfer taxation to 2009 standards…but not until 2018? What prompted 700 tax lawyers to come to the aid of their colleague Alvan Bobrow? Can owners reclaim a painting that was nationalized during the Communist revolution?
Cue the ball to drop on Times Square, prepare to bid adieu to 2012 and its ironically short-lived “lifetime” gift tax exclusion of
$5.12 million, and let’s have a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne,” lest our old acquaintance, the $1 million gift tax exclusion, be forgot.
