Recent Posts
Ohio Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law
Return To Blog Listing
Since January 2006, A law blog (BLAWG) for professionals and the general public in Ohio regarding estate planning, trust and probate law.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'estate tax'
Movement to Eliminate Ohio’s Estate Tax is Under Way
The Ohio chapter of Americans for Prosperity is pushing forward with its proposal to repeal Ohio’s estate tax. Ohio assesses a tax on residents’ estates valued at $338,333 or more. The group successfully certified its petition with the Ohio Att...
Buy-Sell Agreements for Estate Planning Purposes
A buy-sell agreement can have an important purpose in an estate plan. It is an agreement used by business owners to sell the interest of a deceased owner to the remaining owners for a pre-determined price or by use of a pre-determined formula. The ...
High End Estate Tax Savings Strategies Being Eyed by White House
A recent Wall Street Journal article, Estate-Tax Strategies Could Survive Curbs, reports that the Obama administration is proposing to curtail the use of two estate planning techniques typically employed by high net worth individuals. The two techn...
A Charitable Alternative to Cashing in Your Life Insurance
In our prior post, we addressed the possibility of a life settlement as an alternative to taking the cash surrender value of an unneeded life insurance policy. Another alternative is gifting the policy to a charity and taking an income tax charitab...
Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts
What if you paid a significant amount of money to buy something and it was defective? In one instance, you would be getting exactly what you bargained for. The intentionally defective grantor trust, sometimes referred to as a grantor defective tr...
U.S. Senate Proposes Lowering the Estate Tax
There are several articles this morning reporting that the Senate passed an amendment to lower the estate tax. The amendment raises the estate tax exemption amount to $5 million ($10 million for a married couple) and lowers the maximum tax rate to 35...
Obama Tax Proposals a Mixed Bag
A recent Forbes.com article provides a breakdown of President Obama’s tax proposals. One element may be devastating for charities. The proposal would cap the value of deductions for things like charitable donations, mortgage interest and investm...
Life Insurance Review Part I – Beneficiary Designations
If you own life insurance, chances are you have designated a primary beneficiary and a contingent beneficiary. If your primary beneficiary is living at your death, she will inherit the insurance proceeds. If your primary beneficiary fails to surv...
No Surprise – Obama Planning to Block Repeal of Estate Tax
The federal estate tax picture is becoming clearer. According to The Wall Street Journal, President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders are prepared to move quickly to freeze the exemption amount and tax rate at 2009 levels. The Obama pl...
Happy New Year!
As we ring in the new year this evening, many Americans will make their new year’s resolution to make a positive change for 2009. When we wake up in the morning, there will be at least a few significant changes to the federal estate and gift tax e...
Timing is Everything
When markets are down, opportunities abound. People interested in reducing the size of their estates can often maximize their gifting during downturns in the market, both real estate and stock. With respect to real estate, one can gift their residen...
Optimism Wanes Among Proponents of Estate Tax Repeal
As a result of the Congressional compromise known as the 2001 Tax Relief Act, the applicable exclusion amount (the amount exempt from federal estate tax) has been increasing and the maximum tax rate has been decreasing. The current exemption amount i...
An Extension of Time for the Charitably Inclined
As a result of our failing economy, in October of 2008, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, often referred to as the bailout of the U.S. financial system, was enacted. The Act does contain at least one benefit for the charitably incline...
