Here is a nice article from Ahmed Shaikh, a certified estate planning specialist, on the classic tale of Cinderella!

An Estate Plan for Cinderella’s Parents

Fiscal Cliff Update: Whether you approve or disapprove of the Fiscal Cliff deal made by President Obama, the Senate, and the Congress, as of the date of this blog post it is the law of the land. While folks on either side of the aisle may argue about income tax cuts or increases for certain income brackets, you can take some comfort in the fact that the Fiscal Cliff deal will have few negative effects on your current estate plans. In fact, you may be surprised to find that the Fiscal Cliff deal was an overall good deal with regards to estate planning.

 
Without the fiscal cliff deal in place, the federal estate tax exclusion limit (the amount you could transfer tax-free during your lifetime or after your death) would automatically have dropped significantly from $5,120,000.00 to $1,000,000.00. Estates that were worth more than $1,000,000.00 would have been taxed at the rate of 55%. The Fiscal Cliff deal prevented this from occurring. If your estate is worth more than $5,120,000.00, then your estate will be taxed at a rate of 40% rather than the 55%. Admittedly, the 40% rate is still higher than the maximum rate of 35% which large estates were taxed at last year, but overall, we can be thankful that there was no major drop in the federal state tax limit.

 
Furthermore, the Fiscal Cliff deal made the portability law passed in 2010 a permanent feature in estate taxes. For those unfamiliar with the portability concept, the law allows a married couple to combine their federal estate tax exclusions so that they may transfer during or after their lifetime up to $10,240,000.00 tax-free.

 
Finally, the Fiscal Cliff deal increases the annual gift tax exclusion. The limit in 2012 was $13,000.00, and it will increase slightly to $14,000.00. This means that each spouse may give a gift valued at $14,000.00 in a single year without that amount counting against the spouse’s federal estate tax exclusion. This yearly amount may also be combined so that both spouses together can grant a gift to a single person worth $28,000.00 without the gift counting against their federal estate tax exclusion. The couple may make gifts to as many people as they choose, and so long as the gift does not exceed $28,000.00, it will not count against the couple’s federal estate tax exclusion.

 
While the Fiscal Cliff deal makes more changes beyond those discussed above, these are the issues most people were likely concerned about. Overall, with regards to estate planning, the Fiscal Cliff’s positives outweigh its negatives. For those interested in looking deeper into the Fiscal Cliff deal’s effects on estate planning, I would encourage you to read the article posted at the link below.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/01/02/after-the-fiscal-cliff-deal-estate-and-gift-tax-explained/

Here is a Fox Business article with good points about why you need a Will, but it fails to mention that having a Will instead of a comprehensive estate plan means your family may be forced to go through probate in California. Probate, if it can be avoided, should be avoided by having a Living Trust drafted to address the concerns mentioned in this article. The trust takes the place of the Will and avoids probate.

If you have a child with special needs, planning your estate takes on a whole new dimension; especially, as this article in Forbes points out, now that “state and local governments are tightening income restrictions for medical benefits and supportive services, which are typically paid for by Social Security and Medicaid. Those services are tough to find—or afford—in the private sector for many adults with disabilities so severe that they can’t live alone… As a result, it’s increasingly important to structure an inheritance in a way that won’t disqualify a child for such benefits down the road.”

Structuring an estate plan with a special needs child as a beneficiary takes special consideration. Because a direct inheritance could disrupt that child’s public benefits, “some parents simply leave another child all their assets in their will. If there are three children, they might leave two-thirds to the child who lives closest to the one with special needs.”

Unfortunately this particular strategy is rife with possible dangers. The heir may be tempted to use his special needs sibling’s money for his own purposes, or could decide he’s simply tired of being a caretaker. Even worse, the heir could pass away unexpectedly, in which case the entire inheritance would go to the heir’s spouse or children, with nothing left for the special needs child.

The article gives a number of suggestions for safe and reliable ways to leave your special needs child an inheritance, including leaving property to your child in a Qualified Personal Residence Trust, setting up a housing collective, and the tried-and-true option of a Special Needs Trust. But we know that each family is going to have different needs and goals, and there isn’t one solution that will work across the board.

If you have a special needs child your very best course of action is to contact a knowledgeable and experienced attorney to help you understand your options and choose the one that will best protect your child.

2011 and 2012 are good years not only for heirs but also for charities; high estate- and gift-tax exemption amounts (as much as $5 million per person) have many wealthy families exploring their options for gift-giving, and record-low interest rates are prompting many financial advisors to recommend that their clients set up charitable lead trusts to leave money to both their favorite charity and their heirs with little or no tax hit.

When setting up a charitable lead trust the grantor puts the desired assets into a trust for a specified number of years, naming a charitable foundation as the first beneficiary, and a non-charity (children or grandchildren) as the remainder beneficiary. Each year during the specified time period payments are made from the trust to the grantor’s designated charity, once the trust’s term expires, what is left goes to the grantor’s heirs.

Charitable lead trusts have fallen in and out of favor with financial advisors over the years, and were most recently popular after Ms. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis used one to great effect. This recent article in the New York Times describes the pros and cons of the charitable lead trust:

“Over the years, charitable lead trusts have been a way to give money to charity with the possible benefit of passing what was left to children without paying estate taxes.” Although the payout (to both beneficiaries) of a charitable lead trust is highly dependent on the starting interest rate, “the likelihood today that one of these trusts would have money left for heirs [is] 95 percent. The trusts are written so that the assets appreciate substantially over time, but even if they do not, the designated charity — often a family foundation — will still get the money.”

One of the downfalls of a charitable lead trust is that rules and regulations can be confusing, “they are hard for someone who is not a tax lawyer to understand.” Furthermore, some families have “used these trusts to give money to their family foundation. This runs the risk of being deemed self-dealing if the person who set up the trust names his foundation as the recipient and then parcels out the money himself.”

The bottom line is that while a charitable lead trust can be an incredible useful tool benefitting both your heirs and your favorite charity (especially if set up during the next year and a half), it is not something to be done lightly, without the advice and help of an experienced attorney or financial planner.

The hard part is done. Your estate plan has been created, all the documents signed and witnessed and notarized. But wait, you’re not quite done yet—especially if your estate plan includes a trust. The task of funding that trust still remains. Without the completion of this crucial step all of your hard work could be for naught.

Funding is the process of putting all of your property into the trust. Your trust is more than just a piece of paper, it works like a protective box, keeping its contents private and safe from probate; and funding is the process of filling that box. Without funding, your trust is just an empty box, and doesn’t provide much protection at all.

The first question you may ask is “what should go into the box”? The easy answer is EVERYTHING. Start by asking your attorney to create a deed to help you put your home into your trust. For most people, their home is their greatest asset, and the first and most important to put into the protective box.

The next step is to go to your bank and investment advisor and put your bank accounts and stocks or investments, and any other immediate assets into the name of your trust. To do this you will need your Certification of Trust, which is a short document proving the existence of your trust. Your attorney can provide you with copies of your Certification of Trust.

The third step is to look at all of your tax-deferred assets such as retirement accounts, 401(k) accounts, or life insurance policies. These tax-deferred assets cannot be owned by the trust, but to ensure that the proceeds of these assets are distributed according to your wishes you will need to make your trust the primary beneficiary of the accounts or policies. By doing this you are arranging to funnel the proceeds of these assets into the protective box when the time comes. But keep in mind that not all tax-deferred assets are created equal—ask your advisor before placing these into the trust.

Your last step is to execute a comprehensive transfer document, a simple document stating your desire to put all small or tangible property such as furniture, artwork, antiques, etc., into that protective box, and be considered trust property, rather than subject to probate.

Of course every estate will be different; ask your attorney for a comprehensive list of assets to put into your trust. It is only once you’ve tucked all your assets away under the protection of your trust that you can finally breathe that final sigh of relief.

Every new project has to begin somewhere, and most newcomers to estate planning choose to begin with a will and a trust. This is because wills and trusts form the foundation for how your property will be distributed, how your heirs will be cared for, and how the probate process and estate taxes will be handled.

A will is the most well-known of all estate planning documents, it is generally the simplest and easiest to create (although some wills can be very lengthy and complex), and in most states a will can contain within it instructions for peripheral topics such as guardianship of minor children or the final disposition of your remains.

But everybody knows that the main purpose of a will is usually to dispose of your assets and effects. In its most basic form, a will should include these important parts:

* The testator’s (creator’s) name and crucial information

* Nomination of an executor to carry out the wishes of the testator

* The naming of the beneficiaries

* Instructions as to how the estate should be distributed to the beneficiaries

* Signature of the testator and the date signed

* Signature of witnesses and the date signed

As mentioned above, this is a will in its most basic form, but in fact most wills will also contain instructions for probate, instructions regarding the payment of debts and taxes, the names of any organizations to receive charitable distributions, a mention of relatives who may purposefully NOT have been named, and more.

Because a will can be so basic, many people believe that a will can easily be created on one’s own, without the help of an estate planning professional; in fact, there are plenty of companies who offer “Do It Yourself” will creation software for a fee. However, it is important to understand that while a will itself can be very simple; the federal and state tax and probate laws are rarely so. If you feel your estate is small and your wishes are modest then by all means keep your will short and sweet as well. However, we strongly urge ALL of our readers (even those with small and simple estates) to have an estate planning professional at least review your will and advise you as to its validity before you sign it and tuck it away.

In addition to a will many families will choose to also create a trust. We’ve said it before on our blog and we’ll say it again: It doesn’t matter whether you’re a billionaire business executive or a teacher with a modest salary, it doesn’t matter whether you’re the patriarch of a large family or a stay-at-home mom of a newborn, a revocable living trust may be exactly what your family needs to protect their assets and their best interests. This is because a trust is probably the most comprehensive and versatile tool in your estate plan, and is a key part of helping you accomplish your goals.

There are two basic kinds of trusts—revocable and irrevocable. Revocable means that it is able to be revoked or changed so long as the grantor (the person who created the trust) is still living. Logically enough, an irrevocable trust cannot be changed once it has been signed. The reason this question of revocability is so important is because a trust is not merely a set of instructions for how your wealth should be distributed, a trust actually owns the property placed within it, with the person or people serving as trustee (usually for a revocable trust this is the grantors themselves, while they are living) controlling the trust property within. It is for this very reason that trusts can be such a powerful and flexible tool for tax planning and estate planning.

The specifics of your trust will vary greatly depending on what you hope to accomplish. Parents of young children may wish to include a general trust for the benefit of all the children, with distributions made to the guardians as necessary. This general trust can be split into separate individual trusts when all of the children have reached a certain age or graduated from college. Parents (and often grandparents) may want to include education trusts under the umbrella of their revocable living trust. Many families feel it is important to include instructions for charitable giving in their estate plan, and may choose to set up a charitable trust with their children or grandchildren as trustees. Pet owners often create pet trusts to ensure that their animals will be well cared after the owner has died.

A trust, much more than a simple will, allows the grantor far greater control over their assets—and for a longer period of time—which is why trusts are particularly useful for anybody entering into a second or third marriage, or for any parent who worries about the choices a beneficiary might make once they come into their inheritance. Unlike a simple will, trusts are designed to withstand the test of time, allowing you to leave a legacy that can last for decades.

Serving as executor or trustee of a will or a trust is an honor… but it’s also a job—a BIG job—and not one to be taken lightly. The role of executor or trustee can be one of great financial power, but it carries with it a heavy fiduciary obligation. Fiduciary obligation means that an executor or trustee must act in the best interests of the beneficiaries; it means that although the executor or trustee may be doing all the work, he or she may see very little return on that work, which is all for the benefit of the named beneficiaries.

If you have been nominated (or are currently serving) as an executor or trustee there are a few things you’ll want to remember as you go about your duties:

1. The will or trust is your guide, the mission statement by which you should operate; read and understand the document completely, and have an attorney help you, if necessary.

2. You need to be pro-active—to an extent. If you are managing a large amount of money or assets over a period of time it is probably not in the best interests of the beneficiary to let those funds sit in a savings account. Create (with an advisor, if necessary) a financial plan for the trust assets.

3. Although you may be handling the estate assets, you should not have any personal financial dealings with the trust. You should under no circumstances borrow from or lend money to the trust. Keep your finances separate!

4. Communication and transparency is key! Keep detailed records of all of your actions and transactions regarding the will or trust, and send regular reports to the beneficiaries. Regular communication prevents unhappy surprises or angry lawsuits in the future.

5. You don’t have to do it alone. If you were picked as a trustee because of your financial knowledge and experience—great! But if you were picked because you are the oldest, or the most responsible, or the favorite you may feel overwhelmed by the job ahead of you. Don’t try to muddle through alone, get the help and support of an experienced attorney or advisor.

If you have a favorite cause or charity you have probably considered leaving some money to that charity in your will. Perhaps you’ve even taken it a step further and toyed with the idea of specifying that the executor of your will set up a trust in the name of your favorite charity, rather than simply giving a one-time gift.

If you have ever considered either of these options you may want to ask your estate planner about setting up a Charitable Remainder Trust, which, according to this Elder Law Answers article, not only supports your favorite charity after your death, it also benefits you during your lifetime.

“A charitable remainder trust is an irrevocable trust that provides you (and possibly your spouse) with income for life. You place assets into the trust and during your lifetime you receive a set percentage from the trust. When you die, the remainder in the trust goes to the charity (or charities) of your choice.”

The altruistic reasons for setting up a charitable remainder trust are obvious, but here are some other advantages you may not have considered:

* Reduction of your taxable income

* Charitable tax deduction at the time you fund the trust

* Diversification of assets

* Income from the trust during your lifetime

In addition to all of these financial advantages, setting up a charitable remainder trust provides you with the opportunity to leave a family legacy and impress your values upon your children and grandchildren.

Please remember that charitable remainder trusts are irrevocable trusts, which means once they’re done they can’t be undone, so it’s not something to take lightly.  If you are interested in creating a charitable remainder trust, call our office or talk about it with your own attorney before you take action.

As many of you know, the 0% estate tax in 2010 is set to expire December 31, 2010, and increase to 55% for those with estates over $1 million.  This Wall Street Journal article by Laura Saunders and Mary Pilon highlights the need for estate planning this year as we head into a new era of the Estate Tax, which is set to effect eight times more tax filers next year:

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It has come to this: Congress, quite by accident, is incentivizing death.

When the Senate allowed the estate tax to lapse at the end of last year, it encouraged wealthy people near death’s door to stay alive until Jan. 1 so they could spare their heirs a 45% tax hit.

Now the situation has reversed: If Congress doesn’t change the law soon—and many experts think it won’t—the estate tax will come roaring back in 2011.

Not only will the top rate jump to 55%, but the exemption will shrink from $3.5 million per individual in 2009 to just $1 million in 2011, potentially affecting eight times as many taxpayers.

The math is ugly: On a $5 million estate, the tax consequence of dying a minute after midnight on Jan. 1, 2011 rather than two minutes earlier could be more than $2 million; on a $15 million estate, the difference could be about $8 million.

Of course, there is a “death incentive” whenever Congress raises the estate tax. But it hasn’t happened in decades; the top rate has held steady or fallen since 1942, according to tax historian Joseph Thorndike of Tax Analysts, a nonprofit group. In fact, the jump from zero to 55% would be “the largest increase in a major tax that we’ve ever seen,” Mr. Thorndike says. That possibility presents a bizarre menu of options for wealthy older people—and their heirs. Estate planning was never cheerful, but now it is getting downright macabre, at least for the tax averse.

“You don’t know whether to commit suicide or just go on living and working,” says Eugene Sukup, an outspoken critic of the estate tax and the founder of Sukup Manufacturing, a maker of grain bins that employs 450 people in Sheffield, Iowa. Born in Nebraska during the Dust Bowl, the 81-year-old Mr. Sukup is a National Guard veteran and high school graduate who founded his firm, which now owns more than 70 patents, with $15,000 in 1963. He says his estate taxes, which would be zero this year, could be more that $15 million if he were to die next year.

Advisers say the estate-tax dilemma is especially awkward for heirs. “At least in December 2009, people wanted to keep their relatives alive,” says Ronald Aucutt, an estate-tax attorney with McGuire Woods in the Washington area. Now he and others are worried that heirs may be tempted to pull plugs on Dec. 31. Economists might call the taking of a life to reap a tax advantage a “perverse incentive.” District attorneys might call it homicide.

Taxpayers trying to cope with such surreal situations need to understand how they came to be. The roots go back to 2001, when Congress cut the estate tax rate to 45% from 55% and increased the exemption gradually over a decade. From its 2001 level of $675,000, the exemption rose to $3.5 million per individual by 2009. Thanks to legislative sausage making, the rules got extreme after that: The tax disappeared altogether in 2010, but was programmed to revert in 2011 to a $1 million exemption with a top 55% rate.

Few Washington insiders expected Congress to allow the tax to snap back so sharply next year. So why, with nine years to act, didn’t it fix the problem? Political wisdom holds that estate tax changes can’t happen in election years for fear of angering voters, and Hurricane Katrina derailed a 2005 fix. Late last year, the House of Representatives passed an extension of the 2009 estate tax, but the Senate didn’t act.

Compounding the problem, lawmakers didn’t hammer out a fix early this year, as many had expected. Extending the 2009 law retroactive to the beginning of 2010 would have made a seamless transition and resolved issues taxpayers are now facing. Instead, the estate tax has been in limbo all year. Senators are divided among three possible solutions. Some favor the pre-Bush rate of 55%, while others advocate a 35% rate (with a more generous exemption). A third group prefers the old 45% rate. Many Washington insiders are betting Congress won’t act this year because of an overflowing to-do list, the fall election and fewer than 40 working days left in 2010. At least one near-deal has failed the Senate this year. Pressure to act will likely grow following the November elections, when Congress is expected to address many other expiring Bush-era tax breaks, including income taxes and capital-gains rates.

Meanwhile, the living and their relatives face a complex calculus with unknown variables. The Internal Revenue Service has yet to issue guidance explaining current estate-tax law, and no one knows if Congress will include retroactive elements when members deal with the tax. “Not only is the future uncertain, but the past is also. We have no idea what the law is,” Mr. Aucutt says. So far in 2010, an estimated 25,000 taxpayers have died whose estates are affected by current law, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. That group includes least two billionaires, real-estate magnate Walter Shorenstein and energy titan Dan Duncan.

Another unknown is whether—assuming lawmakers act—changes will be retroactive to the beginning of 2010, and if they will be mandatory. Experts say a pure retroactive extension might be constitutional, but they doubt one is feasible at this late date.

“Enough very wealthy people have died whose estates have the means to challenge a retroactive tax, and that could tie the issue up in the courts for years,” says tax-law professor Michael Graetz of Columbia University. Whatever the outcome, few see the zero-tax regime persisting for very long because of the nation’s stratospheric debt and deficits. “I don’t see how Congress can get out of this without creating winners and losers,” says Beth Kaufman, an attorney at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington.

Estate planners and doctors caution against making life-and-death decisions based on money. Yet many people ignore that advice. Robert Teague, a pulmonologist who ran a chronic ventilator facility at a Houston hospital for two decades, found that money regularly figured in end-of-life decisions. “In about 10% of the cases I handled at any one time, financial considerations came into play,” he says.

Struggling to Live

In 2009, more than a few dying people struggled to live into 2010 in hopes of preserving assets for their heirs. Clara Laub, a widow who helped her husband build a Fresno, Calif., grape farm from 20 acres into more than 900 acres worth several million dollars, was diagnosed with advanced cancer in October, 2009. Her daughter Debbie Jacobsen, who helps run the farm, says her mother struggled to live past December and died on New Year’s morning: “She made my son promise to tell her the date and time every day, even if we wouldn’t,” Mrs. Jacobsen says.

In New York the lapsing tax spawned a major family conflict, according to one attorney. As a wealthy patriarch lay dying at the end of the year, it became clear that under the terms of the will his children would receive more if he died in 2010, while his wife (not the children’s mother) stood to benefit if he died in 2009. The wife then filed a “do not resuscitate” order and the children challenged it. The patriarch lived a few days into 2010, but his estate, like Mrs. Laub’s, remains unsettled given the legislative uncertainty.

Mr. Aucutt, who has practiced estate-tax law for 35 years, expects to see “truly gruesome” cases toward the end of the year, given the huge difference between 2010 and 2011 rates. Without knowing what the estate tax is, has been or will be, advisers say it is difficult to offer counsel that applies broadly, as techniques that work under one version of the law backfire in others. Whatever happens, advisers say people who might be affected should take a careful look at their power-of-attorney documents. Under last year’s law, large gifts before death sometimes made sense, depending on the state of residence. This year they could be a terrible move.

Advisers also suggest paying attention to health-care proxies. Who will be making choices, using what factors? Anne L. Stone, an attorney in McLean, Va., has an elderly female client who recently instructed her to write a provision into a health proxy directing her children to take estate taxes into account when making end-of-life decisions.

What about the options for taxpayers who are so eager to reduce their heirs’ tax burden that they are considering ending their lives? Three states—Oregon, Washington and Montana—allow versions of the practice. Oregon’s law took effect in 1997 and Washington enacted a similar one in 2009. Montana’s Supreme Court recently ruled that nothing in the state constitution prohibited doctors aiding patients with dying, but voters haven’t yet specifically authorized it.

‘Suicide Tourism’

Still, states strongly discourage what’s becoming known as “suicide tourism” with elaborate residency and documentation requirements.

Similarly, some countries, such as Switzerland and the Netherlands, have long allowed physicians to aid patients in dying. But only Switzerland extends this benefit to foreigners.

Doctors and hospice professionals, meanwhile, say moving terminally ill patients to places with so-called aid-in-dying laws is usually a bad idea because it adds stress at an already difficult time. “Many people are thinking about [the estate tax], but the truth is that committing suicide is not a normal way of ending your life,” says Porter Storey, vice president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

The uncertainty of the legislation is causing stress even for relatively healthy taxpayers like Art Nickel, who is 78 and lives in the Denver area. He owns a substantial sum in low-cost stock accumulated during a 35-year career as an IBM systems engineer. Like Mr. Sukup, he started with nothing and worked his way up, putting himself through the University of Wisconsin and serving in the Air Force.

“I plan to keep living,” Mr. Nickel says, “but I don’t know how to plan until Congress straightens this mess out.”