DEAL FOR A WEEK; New Forms & Books

2024 presents a continuing and compelling planning opportunity for many of our clients. The 2024 election and the sunset of the 2017 Act after 2025 are not all that far away. It is suggested that planning discussions and actions need to be addressed with clients sooner rather than later.

The 2024 Estate and Tax Client Planning Letter details several planning opportunities to consider in 2024.  The letter encourages clients to take a fresh look at their planning situation to be sure that their decisions and documents express and memorialize those decisions, are up to date and take maximum advantage of the estate planning, income tax and business planning opportunities offered by the tax law.  

SAVE when you purchase three Life Insurance Trust Forms including:

1) Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust With Crummey Powers And Sample Crummey Letter (40 Pages)
2) Irrevocable Survivorship Life Insurance Trust With Crummey Powers And Sample Crummey Letter (33 Pages)
3) Split Dollar Life Insurance Agreement (With Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust As Policy Owner) And Collateral Assignment Of The Policy To The Employer By The Trustee (11 Pages).

Click "Learn More" above for more information about our 5 Irrevocable Trusts.  Alternatively, each Irrevocable Trust may be purchased individually.

SAVE and establish or expand your library with Essential Estate Planning Forms (59 Forms, 648 Pages). Scroll down to read the list of included forms.

Reference these forms to save drafting time and compare how Steve Siegel drafts his documents.  See the detailed description for the list of included forms.  Each form is fully editable and yours for immediate and unlimited use upon purchase.

With recent health and political concerns, more practitioners will be asked for help administering estates than in many years.

The window to take advantage of generous GST planning opportunities and to repair GST planning mistakes might be closing.  Political risk suggests at least the possibility that the current generous GST exclusion may be reduced substantially. This is a critical time to discuss GST planning with clients.

This document is an Incomplete Non-Grantor Trust (“ING Trust”). It is drafted with a Nevada Trustee, and intended to have Nevada as its situs, but it may be used as a template for other states which do not have a state income tax (South Dakota, Alaska, Delaware (for non-residents) Wyoming, etc.) where ING Trusts are favored. In such other states, it is necessary to have a trustee situated in that state as the trustee. Attention should be paid to determine if other states have specific provisions that should be added to this document.

The purpose of an ING Trust is to hold assets of a taxpayer who resides in a high-income tax state and allow those assets to not be subjected to income tax in the state of the taxpayer’s residence, since the trust is not a grantor trust of the taxpayer. Instead, the trust is created as a non-grantor trust, subject to the income tax laws of the state where the trust is located, in this case, Nevada. Since Nevada does not have an income tax, the income is not subjected to state tax if it is not distributed. If it is distributed, then it is subject to the income tax laws of the state of the distributee’s residence.

An ING is used by people in high income tax states (like CA for example) to move intangible investment assets into it to avoid the income from them being subjected to CA income tax. Thus, it is a “device” designed to eliminate state (not federal) income tax.

Last November, Massachusetts passed a new law increasing the income tax rate on incomes over $1 million by 4%. For those clients, an ING might be very appealing.

Of course, advisers need to check their state law. New York passed a law saying if you have an ING it will still be taxed by New York as a grantor trust (income taxed to the grantor). However, New York residents might still create INGs and see if New York law holds up. 

This is an Irrevocable Generation-Skipping (GST) Trust for child (for life), then for grandchildren i.e. more of a 2-generation trust than a Dynasty Trust. The limited power of appointment must be exercised for descendants and the default is to descendants if the power is not exercised. Thus, clearly there are GST implications.

This is an irrevocable trust that can be used in numerous planning situations. The Trust names one or more beneficiaries who are viewed as discretionary recipients of income and principal. The Trustee has broad discretion to distribute some, all or none of the trust property. If the first group of beneficiaries pass without receiving all of the trust assets, their heirs succeed to their interest. Similar discretion is provided for this group of beneficiaries as well.

This is an ideal form for persons wanting an irrevocable trust for children and possibly grandchildren and providing full discretion as to distributions to the Trustees.

Portability allows the estate of a decedent who is survived by a spouse to make an election to transfer the decedent's unused federal transfer tax exclusion. In this December 2022, 80-mimute program, Mr. Siegel gives a useful and comprehensive explanation of portability. Please see "Details" below for the many topics he covers.