What is a Trust?

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...

What is 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...

Crummey Trusts

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...

The Estate and Gift Taxes

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...