If you are the Grantor or Owner/Trustee of a Trust Owned Life Insurance (TOLI) policy, chances are that you have not reviewed your trust or the insurance policies owned by the trust on a periodic basis to make sure to make sure that the insurance policy is not at risk. In fact, many policies have not been reviewed since their initial purchase. IS YOUR POLICY AT RISK? Rapidly evolving developments in insurance products and features…changes…
People with potential taxable estates should consider maximum utilization of the Annual Exclusion. The Annual Exclusion is an amount a person (the Donor) can give to another person (the Donee) without any gift tax consequences. The current Annual Exclusion amount is $14,000 per Donee. So you could give 10 people $14,000 each, every year, without incurring any gift tax and not using your Lifetime Exemption (which allows up to $5+ million in additional gifting before…
An ILIT is just an irrevocable trust that holds life insurance. An ILIT is used to make the death benefit escape estate tax. Life insurance already escapes income tax. Avoiding both tax systems can make life insurance a very attractive investment for the future of your family. With the estate tax exemption just over $5 million and climbing, many would be client believe that estate planning and estate tax planning in particular are no longer…
What is a Beneficiary Controlled Trust? A Beneficiary Controlled Trust is an estate or gift tax planning technique where parents leave property to their children in a trust rather than outright. As the name implies, the child-beneficiary is the trustee of the trust. Thus, the Beneficiary Controlled Trust. Why are estate planners and their clients increasingly using Beneficiary Controlled Trusts? It is easier to explain why, if we first understand that there are essentially two…
