by paullawblog | May 3, 2015 | Estate Planning
A trust is a relationship in which property is held by one person for the benefit of another person. A trust has three fundamental roles: settlor, trustee, and beneficiary. The settlor creates the trust and funds the trust with trust property. The trustee holds and...
by paullawblog | Apr 19, 2015 | Estate Planning
At its most basic, estate planning is preparing for the end of life. It is a difficult, but necessary topic. Estate planning typically involves creating a comprehensive plan that accounts for the following issues. Property Creating a plan to distribute property is the...
by paullawblog | Apr 12, 2015 | Estate Planning
A Crummey trust, also known as an irrevocable gift trust (“IGT”), is a type of irrevocable trust. A Crummey trust is designed to help reduce estate tax liability by utilizing an individual’s annual gift tax exemption. However, a Crummey trust, like most irrevocable...
by paullawblog | Apr 5, 2015 | Estate Planning
The estate tax, or “death tax,” is a hot topic in estate planning. However, today, the estate tax does not impact most people. For much of history, the estate tax had a relatively low exemption and a high top tax rate. For instance, from 1942 to 1976, the exemption...