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Use of Trusts in Estate Planning

Posted October 29, 2021 in Mitchell F. Green, Robert M. Kramer, Articles, Asset Protection, Corporate and Taxation, Estate Planning and Probate
Trusts are used for a variety of purposes in estate planning. A trust is a legal relationship in which one person (the trustee) holds legal title to property for the benefit of another (the beneficiary). The settlor is the person who creates and funds the trust. The beneficiaries are the people who will benefit from the trust property or who hold a power of appointment over trust property (i.e., have the authority to dispose of trust property). The trustee is the person who administers the trust and manages the trust property. A trust is created when a property owner (the settlor) transfers legal title of assets to a person (the trustee) who has the duty to hold and manage the assets for the benefit of one or more persons (the beneficiaries). The property transferred into the trust is known as the trust principal, trust estate, or trust corpus.

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How You Can Avoid Probate

Posted October 12, 2021 in Mitchell F. Green, Robert M. Kramer, Articles, Asset Protection, Corporate and Taxation, Estate Planning and Probate, News
An estate planning attorney can help you weigh the pros and cons of probate and give you an idea of the probate costs and time frames in your jurisdiction. If you decide you want to avoid probate, here are the principal ways to do it: 1.  Create a revocable living trust (RLT) and transfer your assets into it.  If you name yourself as the trustee, you will keep control over the assets. You can amend or revoke the trust at any time. When you die, the assets pass to your beneficiaries outright or in trust as you have specified in the trust document without going through probate. This method gives you the most flexibility but is the most expensive.

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Situations in Which Probate Might Make Sense

Posted October 4, 2021 in Mitchell F. Green, Robert M. Kramer, Articles, Asset Protection, Corporate and Taxation, Estate Planning and Probate
Although avoiding probate is a good plan for many individuals, you may decide that you want your estate to be probated if any of the following are true: 1. The cost and effort of probate avoidance exceed the expected expense of probate.  A revocable living trust is the principal tool for avoiding probate.  A revocable living trust is typically more expensive to have prepared than a simple will.  Even once it is created, the trust must be maintained until death.  The costs associated with a revocable living trust sometimes exceed the expected cost of probate.

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Should You Avoid Probate?

Posted August 11, 2021 in Mitchell F. Green, Robert M. Kramer, Articles, Asset Protection, Corporate and Taxation, Estate Planning and Probate, News
One of the many decisions you will need to make about your estate plan is whether you want to avoid probate. Probate is the legal process for settling an estate after someone has died. It is also known as estate administration. The main purpose of probate is to provide inheritors of a deceased person’s property with clear title to the property. During probate, the decedent’s personal representative (also called the executor) locates the decedent’s assets, pays his or her debts, and distributes the remainder of the estate to the beneficiaries named in the will or heirs specified by state law. Here are three reasons why you might prefer for your estate to pass outside probate:

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How Federal Estate and Gift Taxes Work

Posted May 17, 2021 in Mitchell F. Green, Robert M. Kramer, Articles, Asset Protection, Corporate and Taxation, Estate Planning and Probate, News

Many people are concerned that a significant portion of their estates will be consumed by federal estate tax. Federal estate and gift taxes are really a single tax on the value of property transferred from one person to another. The gift tax applies to transfers during life and the estate tax to transfers on death. Estate and gift tax rates are high. However, very few gifts and estates are actually taxed because of generous exemptions, exclusions, and deductions. The Estate Tax Lifetime Estate and Gift Tax Exemption Each individual is entitled to transfer a certain dollar value of property without any estate (or gift) tax liability. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 doubled the estate tax exemption to approximately $11 million. The exemption is indexed for inflation and is expected to rise each year. In 2025, the exemption will be cut in half to its 2017 level unless Congress enacts a new law. The amount of the exemption is reduced by any taxable gifts you have made during your life. Because of the exemption, less than .1 percent of estates will be subject to estate tax. That translates into fewer than two thousand estates per year.

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