Estate Planning: Gifting: More than a new tie for Father’s Day

Estate Planning: The viability of portability after changes to the federal estate tax

By David Pettig
POSTED: May 10, 2012
Tags: estate planning

The 2010 tax act, affectionately known as the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,” made significant changes to the federal estate tax, including the increase of the estate tax exemption to $5 million per person, the lowering of the tax rate to 35 percent and the introduction of what is [...]

Estate Planning: True or false … or somewhere in between?

By David Pettig
POSTED: April 12, 2012
Tags: estate planning

Estate Planning for Retirement Accounts Questions: 1. Designating a trust created for a surviving spouse as the sole beneficiary of an IRA is no different than designating the spouse as the direct beneficiary because the minimum required distribution (MRD) in both is based upon the spouse’s life expectancy. (Assume the trust has conduit provisions.) __True [...]

Estate Planning: More income from investments in troubled times

By David Pettig
POSTED: February 9, 2012
Tags: estate planning

In these difficult times, with investment returns at historically low levels, many of our clients are searching for safer investments with higher yields. There are several avenues to explore for those who have charitable intentions. A Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust, Charitable Remainder Unitrust and/or a Charitable Gift Annuity may be just what the financial doctor [...]

Estate Planning: Are life insurance trusts still a viable planning technique?

By David Pettig
POSTED: January 12, 2012
Tags: estate planning

Back in “the old days” i.e. 1997 The federal estate tax exemption was $600,000 per person and the highest estate tax rate was 55 percent of the taxable estate. Back then, the federal estate tax applied to, perhaps, 4 percent to 5 percent of the U.S. population. Life insurance trusts were a valuable part of [...]

Estate Planning: A year-end review of federal and New York transfer taxes

By David Pettig
POSTED: December 8, 2011
Tags: estate planning

Estate tax • Federal Exemption $5,000,000 per person* $10,000,000 per couple* — To get maximum tax savings, both spouses are no longer required to each have a $5,000,000 estate. Example: first spouse to die may have $4,000,000 estate. Survivor has $6,000,000 exemption. This concept is known as “portability” Rate: 35% Deduction for state estate taxes [...]

Estate Planning: Why you, and your clients, should sign up for Rochester RHIO

By David Pettig
POSTED: November 10, 2011
Tags: estate planning

If you haven’t signed up for it, or if you haven’t advised your clients to, YOU SHOULD. The Rochester Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) is a resource that provides a secure online health information exchange platform. It gives authorized health care providers access to up-to-date medical information including test and lab results, radiology reports, medical [...]

Estate Planning: Uncovering the truth about revocable trusts

By Jason P. Torres
POSTED: October 13, 2011
Tags: estate planning

I once had a new client arrive at our first meeting with a tabbed copy of a Suze Orman book in hand in which she touts the value of using revocable trusts as part of a proper estate plan. Seeing as how I had not read her book, I was not in a position to either defend or oppose her position.

Estate Planning: A trustee’s duty to disclose grows thanks to UTC

By David Pettig
POSTED: September 8, 2011
Tags: estate planning

A trustee’s duty to notify contingent beneficiaries and remaindermen of New York situs trusts may now be receiving more notifications concerning the specific terms of the trust, its value and the nature and extent of the trust assets. The reasoning behind the notifications …

Estate Planning: A quick look at a number of recent estate cases

By David Pettig
POSTED: August 11, 2011
Tags: estate planning

In the last few months, New York courts have opined on some unusual topics related to estate planning and estate administration. The following is a sampling of recent decisions …

Estate Planning: If it sounds too good to be true, it might be

By David Pettig
POSTED: July 14, 2011
Tags: estate planning

Some recent situations that prove the maxim: “The funds you have in your daughter’s Uniform Transfers to Minors Account (UTMA) are hardly earning anything. You should transfer them to an annuity in your name with a guaranteed rate of return.”

Estate Planning: Opinion 865

By Daily Record Staff
POSTED: June 13, 2011
Tags: Conflict of Interest, estate planning, NYSBA Committee on Professional Ethics

NYSBA Committee on Professional Ethics Estate Planning Conflict of Interest Opinion 865 Background: An estate planner prepared an estate plan for his client and supervised the execution of a will in furtherance of the plan. The will named the deceased client’s nephew as executor of the estate. After the death of the client, the nephew [...]