Last Will and Testament

Every estate plan should include a will, which clearly sets forth the intentions of the decedent regarding who will be the executor, who will inherit, and who will become guardian to any minor children.

Nontraditional Estates

Nontraditional families are exceedingly common. If your family involves step-parents and step-children, you may need special considerations for your estate plan to reflect your intentions.

Power of Attorney

A power of attorney is a legal document, which designates the person who can speak for you if you become incapacitated or unable to make your own decisions for any reason.

Living Wills

Living wills and other advanced directives are made to designate how you are to be treated in the event of medical incapacitation. These documents protect your interests.

Trust Funding and Admin

Setting up a trust is an excellent way to control your assets now and after your passing. We can help you establish your trust, and we can make sure it is funded sufficiently to meet your needs. We also handle full-service trust administration.

Generational Estate Plans

For estates valued over $5,250,000, Congress has a 35% flat tax on generation-skipping transfers. This includes any transfer to a family member who is two generations removed from the grantor or to a non-family member who is more than 37.5 years younger. Protecting these assets requires careful planning, creative trust usage, and other legal instruments.

Trusts

Trusts are legal instruments by which the owner of property or assets, known as the grantor, transfers assets to a trust and then designates a trustee to administer and manage the assets for the benefit of the beneficiaries. Living trusts can be created and funded during the grantor's lifetime. Usually, the grantor of a living trust will be both trustee and beneficiary.

Upon the death of the grantor, the assets can remain in the trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries or be distributed according to the terms of the trust. Living trusts are revocable, which means they can be changed by the grantor. They are generally subject to estate tax.

Irrevocable trusts, on the other hand, can't be changed once created, and they are not generally subject to estate tax. Trusts offer some advantages over wills. Specifically, the assets that are held in a trust are not subject to probate, so they can be distributed more quickly and with fewer costs. In addition, trust assets can be kept private and confidential. Anything in probate passes into the public record.

Qualified Personal Residence Trusts

A QPRT can provide significant estate tax savings for large estates. The owner of an estate puts the title to his home in the name of the trustee of his irrevocable QPRT. The terms of the trust allow the owner to live in the home for a specified period of time, and at the end of that period, the property automatically passes to the beneficiaries.

The tax savings come from the reduced value of the estate at the time of transfer. The IRS allows the value of the estate to be determined at the time of the transfer to the QPRT, so the value is locked-in several years before the time that the estate is to pass to the beneficiaries.

In addition, the value of the home is further reduced by the existence of the retention period provision. This provision causes the estate to be valued at less than fair market value. The advantages can be quite telling, which is why we've helped many clients with QPRTs.