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Showing 6 posts by Phillip A. Pearson.
Put Portability in Your Plan – Changing Gift Tax Exemption Regulations for Spouses
Personal estate plans that reflect yours and your loved ones’ needs can help ease financial burdens for them in the future. New guidance from the IRS takes both yours and your spouse’s estate tax exemptions into consideration, allowing for the option to elect “portability” of your exemptions in certain cases. This opportunity can help to alleviate financial stress for those who have unfortunately lost a spouse, but its implementation is time sensitive, so it’s important to know how and when to act. More >
Give Now, Save Later – Capturing Current Estate and Gift Tax Exemptions
Many people think of an estate plan as a way for their assets to be distributed in the future, after their deaths. However, in some situations, it may be more advantageous to make at least some of those planned gifts now—and help your loved ones avoid some of the financial burden of estate taxes. Especially for individuals with high net worth, taxes could become much greater when the currently increased lifetime exemption amount “sunsets” on January 1, 2026. More >
Revocable Trusts—Are They Right for You?
When it comes to planning for your financial legacy, concepts and strategies tend to be complicated and often overwhelming, so it’s only natural that people look for simple solutions to their not-so-simple problems. Revocable, or “living”, trusts are often touted as a cure-all for estate planning ailments, but no estate planning strategy is “one size fits all,” so it’s best to look carefully at your particular situation and make sure a revocable trust is really the best choice for your estate plan. More >
Divorced? It’s Time to Update Your Estate Plan
Most people create their estate plans while they are married—leaving all of their assets to the surviving spouse and putting the surviving spouse in charge of their affairs upon death or incapacity. However, if you’ve recently gotten divorced and haven’t touched your estate plan since, an update is long overdue. More >
Estate Planning Taxes: No Change…for Now
Last year, with a new administration in Washington, several changes to estate planning tax laws were proposed in Congress that would have significantly impacted the estate plans of high-net-worth individuals. While none of these proposed changes came to pass as initially proposed, those same proposals could be brought to the table again in 2022. Below, we provide you with an overview of what hasn’t changed—yet. More >
When Virtual is Valuable: Planning for Your Digital Assets
Even in our technology-centric world, people’s estate plans often only account for “traditional” assets, like a car, checking account, house, etc., for example. More and more, however, an individual owns digital assets as well. With this in mind, a reasonable person would then ask: how do you build a strategy for your legacy that ensures your “virtual”—but still very real—assets are also protected? More >