Can Estate Planning Reduce Taxes?

Once more hesitant to plan ahead, clients in today’s environment are much more proactive and willing to take action in the near term, rather than waiting and risking having to pay higher taxes down the line.

What’s Happening to the Estate Tax?

Under current rules, the federal estate tax won’t ever affect you, unless you’re quite wealthy. However, that could change rapidly, even if you are far from rich.

How to Prepare for Higher Taxes

President Biden’s proposal to eliminate the step-up for calculating inheritance taxes targets a tactic that has long been a wealth-preservation tool. What are some of the ramifications of the proposal and what, after political wrangling, could be the tax implications for large inherited assets?

Will Inheritance and Gift Tax Exemptions Change in 2021?

The increase in the exemption is set to lapse after 2025. However, the Treasury Department and the IRS issued “grandfather” regulations in 2019 allowing the increased exemption to apply to gifts made while it was in effect, if Congress lowers the exemption after those gifts.

Can a Charity Be a Beneficiary of an Estate?

Ever since a group of philanthropists created the Giving Pledge in 2010, taxpayers have expressed greater interest in potential estate planning strategies that would allow them to leave a significant portion of their assets to charity upon their death.

Wealthy Women Face Challenges in Estate and Tax Planning

Given the expectation the Biden administration will roll back some of Trump’s favorable policies of the past four years, tax consultants and accountants are already hard at work. But for HNW women, dealing with election fallout is minor, compared to the bigger fish they have been frying in the tax pan for decades.

How Can I Easily Pass My Home to My Only Child?

I am a single retired parent to an adult daughter, who is an only child. The home I currently reside for the last 26 years still has a mortgage and the deed is in my name only. I have a will that states everything is left to my daughter, and then to my grandson, if she proceeds me in death. Should my daughter be added to the deed?