To help fund the Affordable Care Act, a 3.8 percent net investment income tax took effect in 2013. The tax, known as the NIIT, is imposed against individuals, trusts and estates on non-business income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, rents and capital gains above certain thresholds.
For the tax year 2016, the threshold for trusts
Asset protection can be a valuable tool when building an estate plan. For married couples, state law may offer an additional layer of asset protection by virtue of mere property ownership rules.
Tenancy by the entirety, or TBE, is a special type of property ownership designation that is similar to joint tenancy. There are distinct
Prince Rogers Nelson, an American music legend better known simply as Prince, died unexpectedly April 21 at his home near Minneapolis. The cause of Prince’s death is still unknown, but that mystery is not the one gaining most of the headlines these days. Instead, more attention is being focused on Prince’s estate.
Prince died apparently
Most people think once they have signed their trust, they are done with the estate planning process. However, an estate plan is not complete until the trust has been funded. Many of the goals behind creating a trust (probate avoidance, privacy, management of assets upon death or incapacity, asset protection) are only achieved to the
Parents will never stop worrying about their children, and when it comes to the people your children date, emotions always run high. Thankfully, there is something you can do to protect your hard-earned money from your children’s spouses, or potential ex-spouses.
If you die and leave assets to a child outright (not to a trust)
Do you have an irrevocable trust and now wish you could change its terms? Maybe you want to provide more asset protection to the beneficiaries or loosen rigid distribution standards. It’s possible to reach those goals, as well as others that might benefit you and your beneficiaries.
Historically, settlors, trustees, beneficiaries, trust attorneys and even
Your mobile phone rings showing a number from Washington, D.C. You answer and the voice on the other end says: “This is Mr. James, agent number 5706 with the Internal Revenue Service. You owe a significant amount in back taxes. We are preparing to bring criminal charges against you that may result in jail time
An Alabama probate judge entered an order recently sealing the probate court file, including the will, of Harper Lee, the famed author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Attorneys for the estate successfully argued public access should be restricted, in part, because the author would not have wanted her private financial information to be a matter