Elections have impacts. At the time of this writing, Donald Trump will become the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025, and Republicans are poised to take control of both houses of Congress.
Inter-Vivos QTIP Marital Trusts – Protecting the Assets You Have and Want to Pass On
In this article, we focus on the asset protection benefits of lifetime (“inter-vivos”) transfers to irrevocable “QTIP” marital trusts. The big distinctions between these trusts and SLATs and “Bert and Earnie” Trusts is that, with inter-vivos QTIP marital trusts, the trustmaker spouse need not give up the right to use and benefit from contributed trust property after his or her spouse’s death, and the couple’s beneficiaries can benefit from capital gains income tax step-ups when each spouse dies.
Qualified Personal Residence Trusts
Mr. Wright expresses his opinions and writes regular articles specifically for his clients on estate law. With interest rates rising and the federal estate tax exemption about to be cut in half in 2026, qualified personal residence trusts are becoming increasingly attrac ...
Secure Act Redux: Surprises and New Flexibility for IRA Beneficiary Trusts
In early 2020, we alerted you about Congress’s enactment of the “Secure Act” in a two-part article series. For the most part, this new federal law ended “stretch” inherited individual retirement accounts allowing beneficiaries to withdraw IRA funds over the course of their ...
A Trust Primer for Trustees and Investment Advisers
As the popularity of trusts has increased over recent years, the number of individuals asked to serve as a trustee for loved ones or friends has multiplied. Deciding how best to cope with these new situations can be confusing for those individuals and financial professional ...
The Shifting Role of Taxes in Estate Planning
I am often asked if Estate Planning has gotten easier as a result of recent changes in federal and Maryland estate tax law. My response: Estate Planning has not gotten easier, it has just become different. Coupled with other changes in society (e.g., lengthening mortality, v ...
2018 Estate and Trust Tax Planning
Inflation Adjustments and Initial Observations on the 2017 Tax Act’s Impacts: In late October, the Internal Revenue Service issued its inflation-adjusted exemptions, exclusions and tax brackets to be used for 2018 federal tax returns. See generally, Internal Revenue Notice 2 ...
Saving State Income Taxes with Moveable Trusts
We recently reviewed and extolled the benefits of Inheritance Trusts in three blog posts on this website. Two of the principal benefits of such trusts are to provide creditor and divorce protection for beneficiaries on accumulated trust income and to immunize such accumulate ...
Transferring Motor Vehicles To Living Trusts
Motor Vehicle Transfers to Maryland Revocable Living Trusts A question often arises when funding a new or existing revocable living trust (“living trust”) whether the trustmaker should retitle his or her motor vehicles to the trust. Two recently enacted Maryland laws have ad ...
Securing Your Family’s Future Using Inheritance Trusts: Part 1
PART 1: Inheritance Trusts and How They Work The key to estate planning is understanding clients’ goals for the process. Generally, as a primary overarching goal, clients cite their desire to maintain their assets for as long as possible as a safety net protecting themselves ...