The federal estate and gift tax exemption (the combined amount you can give away to beneficiaries other than your spouse or charities during life and at death without paying gift or estate tax) is increasing to $13.61 million per person as of January 1, 2024, up from $12.92 million in 2023. This is an increase

If you are at least 70 ½ years old and have a traditional IRA, you can give up to $100,000 from your IRA account directly to charity. This direct transfer, called a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), avoids having to  recognize the assets transferred to the charity in your gross income on your tax return.

Direct

Did you know that actions can be taken after you die (i.e., post-mortem) to achieve the best results possible for your testamentary plan? Some estate plans are intentionally structured to give your beneficiaries and your executor/trustee the ability to make educated post-mortem planning decisions after your death.

For instance, bequests can be altered through post-mortem

Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, died in Michigan in 2018, leaving not one but two handwritten wills. The 2010 will was found in a locked cabinet, signed on every page and notarized, while the 2014 will, which the courts would usually view as superseding the first and which was written in a spiral notebook

In 1992, New York became the first state in the nation to enact a decanting statute, namely, New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL) 10-6.6. The statute subsequently was modified several times. The 2011 amendment was notable because it greatly liberalized the statute’s application. Today, New York’s decanting statute is a tool frequently used

This article appeared in the Summer 2023 issue of  Conservation News, a publication of the North Shore Land Alliance.

You may already know about many of the amazing things the North Shore Land Alliance has done to protect our beloved Long Island. The mission of the Land Alliance is: “To conserve and safeguard Long island’s natural

While the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax is complex, most estate practitioners who regularly deal with it eventually obtain a level of comfort, if not an expertise, concerning it. Such practitioners counsel their clients about avoiding or minimizing exposure to the tax. Some of the typical tools in the arsenal involve the GST tax annual exclusion

I am often asked about the difference between wills and revocable trusts, so I thought it important to explain the purpose of each.

Wills and revocable trusts basically do the same thing – each is a document in which you give away your assets to your beneficiaries upon your death. Both can be revoked and

Oh, the things you hear at cocktail parties: “Everyone should have a revocable trust,” “It’s easy to change your residence to Florida for tax purposes – just count days and get a Florida license,” “Make all your trusts Delaware trusts to avoid state income taxes.” The efficacy of any of these pronouncements depends on each

The beginning of March marked the collapse of crypto-focused Silvergate Bank. That same month, the bank shut down its Silvergate Exchange Network, which allowed clients with holdings in digital currency to move U.S. dollars from their own account to the bank accounts of other Silvergate customers.

Cryptocurrency, nonfungible tokens and other digital assets and emerging