Trusts

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers The year 2017 is bringing changes to the estate and gift tax exemption, the annual exclusion as well as a possible repeal of the estate tax due to President Trump and a Republican majority in Congress. The estate and gift tax exemption is increasing this year as expected. As a refresher, the estate and gift tax is a tax on the transfer of assets...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers I often tell clients to consider a living trust like a box with instructions written on the side.  Assets, including real estate, bank accounts and brokerage accounts are put into the box.  The writing on the side of the box instructs a person (called the “Trustee”) what to do with the items in the box after someone dies.  Assets are “put” into...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers Planning for Incapacity “I’d like to do a power of attorney for my mother who has dementia.”  This is the type of request that I sometimes receive from a prospective client calling our office.  In these cases, a conservatorship is the only option.  An estate plan is not just for efficiently passing on wealth to the next generation, asset...

Disinheriting a person it sounds easy but in practice can be difficult to accomplish. The first step is to determine whether the disinherited person is in line to inherit anything in the first place. Put it in Writing Generally speaking, if a person does not create a Will or trust prior to death or incapacity (think stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s) that person’s wealth is...

When you think about the price of having kids, the costs that come to mind may include things like child care, camp, braces and college tuition. What probably doesn’t spring to mind are mortgages, car payments or personal loans. The reality, however, is that your bank account will likely continue to be tapped long past the day your kids turn 21. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center report,...

Readers often ask me about do-it-yourself estate planning. Lawyers want to know how to discourage clients from using books or software and websites that spew out documents for free or for a fraction of what they charge. Meantime, consumers ask, “What’s wrong with that?” The trouble with do-it-yourself planning is that even if your situation seems simple, there are many oddball things a layman...

You can’t take a tax break with you, but it’s becoming easier to leave to your beneficiaries. The IRS released final rulings detailing an estate and gift-tax break for married couples, known as “portability”. It allows a married spouse to pass nearly $11m in assets to heirs, free of estate tax. Without this, couples would only qualify for one exemption, as opposed to two. The exemption,...