Estate Planning Blogs

In the coming months, you'll be hearing a lot about Roth IRA conversions, due to the elimination of the $100,000 income limit, effective January 1, 2010. Beginning January 1, 2010, taxpayers at all income levels will be able to convert, and the resulting income tax liability is payable over two years, 2011 and 2012. The answer to this question is both mathematical and political.

Many clients do their planning at year end, which is not necessarily the best timing. Planning should carry through the entire year. Now that tax day has passed, it's as good a time as any to review and update your estate plan. Like your annual physical, it is wise to also have a legal checkup. The following are a few areas that should be considered, although they may not all be appropriate for everybody...

That is the consumer cry that has resounded in the news media with regard to rate increases on long term care insurance policies. What's imperative to know is that long term care insurance policies are Guaranteed Renewable, but the premium you pay is not.  Guaranteed renewable means that you have the right to continue the policy as long as you pay your premiums on time.  If something happens to your health years from now, as long as you pay your premium on time, your policy will be there for you.  But within that same paragraph in the policy you will find words to the effect that  "________________ Insurance Company may increase the premium you pay."

Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts ("GRATs") are one of the most important wealth transfer planning techniques available.  Standing alone GRATs can be used to accomplish substantial wealth transfers; however, when properly structured and coordinated together with other planning tools such as self-cancelling installment notes ("SCINs") and intentionally defective trusts ("IDITs") wealth transfers to donees and beneficiaries can explode exponentially.  This two part article will discuss a number of planning techniques which can increase substantially the planning value of GRATs both individually and in combination with other estate planning tools.

We all like to think that we make rational and wise decisions when managing our money. But most of us are influenced far more by our emotions than our brains. Why do smart people make irrational investment decisions so commonly and so easily? The fascinating study of behavioral economics and decision science fills many books, but let's look at a few of the ways in which investors' minds play tricks on them.