Articles Posted in Estate Planning

You may have read or heard news about two bills recently introduced in the Senate that, if enacted, could have a significant impact on many estate plans. I am writing to you, as a valued allied professional, to provide you with some additional information on these proposals, and the effect they may have on estate…

It has been this authors experience that the engagement agreements of many divorce attorneys specifically disclaim the divorce attorney’s responsibility for any tax or estate planning issues involved in the divorce settlement. When divorce occurs, there are important tax law and estate planning issues that need to be addressed. — especially by high net worth…

ABATEMENT Cutting back certain gifts under a will when it’s necessary to meet expenses, pay taxes, satisfy debts or take care of other bequests that are given priority under law or under the will. ADEMPTION The failure of a testamentary gift of real or personal property due to the absence of the item given in…

Internal Revenue Code §72 governs the income taxation of annuity contracts. This post deals with the estate taxation of annuities. Internal Revenue Code §2039 deals with traditional annuity contracts as well as other types of contractual arrangements under which a decedent was entitled to receive a periodic payment, effectively for life, and upon decedent’s death…

Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.) Section 2037 requires the inclusion in the gross estate of property which had been transferred by gift during lifetime if — (1) possession or enjoyment of the property by the transferee can be obtained only at or after the transferor’s death, or (2) the decedent retained a possibility (referred to as…

A power of appointment is essentially the right to designate who is to own certain specified property. The essence of the concept can be illustrated through the following simple example: D dies and his will provides that certain rental property which he owned be placed in a trust, from which all future income is to…

The gross estate includes the value of any interest in property transferred by decedent during lifetime, if the enjoyment of the interest was subject to any change through the exercise of a power by the donor to alter, amend, revoke or terminate, which power was in effect as of the date of the donor’s death…

Under Internal Revenue Code §2041 the gross estate includes property as to which decedent held a general power of appointment as of the date of her death. A power of appointment is essentially the right to designate who is to own certain specified property. The person who holds the power technically does not own the…

Internal Revenue Code section §2042 deals with the inclusion in the gross estate, of the proceeds of life insurance policies, payable by reason of the death of the insured. In general, the insurance proceeds are includable in the gross estate if the proceeds are: (i) receivable by or for the benefit of the decedent’s estate,…

Decedents who died prior to 1982 were subject to a rule requiring that any property transferred by gift within three years prior to the transferor’s death had to be included in the gross estate of the deceased transferor, at its date-of-death value (even though the transferor may have had no ownership interest or retained rights…