Although legislation was passed this year on the estate tax, limiting the top tax to 40 percent, with only estates worth over $5.25 million subject to the tax, President Obama’s budget still wants to return to the 2009 levels starting in 2018. Under the proposal, starting in 2018, the top estate, gift and generation skipping [...]
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Congress has dealt with the estate tax issue, determining that the federal tax will now kick in at $5.25 million, so only the wealthy have to think much about estate planning anymore, right? Wrong. According to a recent New York Times article, even the “non-wealthy” still need to pay close attention to estate planning. For [...]
Some people complain that family wealth is a curse. Kids get too much too soon. They lose motivation. Family members focus on money to the exclusion of all else. And it can lead to low self-esteem, since you inherited the money and didn’t make it yourself. All that can be true. But an article in [...]
Some people complain that family wealth is a curse. Kids get too much too soon. They lose motivation. Family members focus on money to the exclusion of all else. And it can lead to low self-esteem, since you inherited the money and didn’t make it yourself. All that can be true. But an article in [...]
A man who died last summer in Illinois left his million dollar estate to two actors he never met. According to an article on ABC’s Good Morning America web site, Ray Fulk, who was 71 when he died, left the two actors a half million each. Fulk lived alone and had no family. But he [...]
Forbes blogger Deborah Jacobs has written a book that will tell you everything you need to know about estate planning. It is called “Estate Planning Smarts” and it is described as a “user friendly, action oriented guide” to estate planning. It has been updated to reflect the latest changes to estate tax policy. It is [...]
Now that the confusion over the federal estate tax is resolved — the $5 million exemption is now permanent — you may think that’s the last you’ll have to worry about estate taxes and exemptions. Wrong. Each state has its own estate tax laws. So depending on where you live, your estate may not be [...]
It’s a fact: married people are generally wealthier than singles. Of course, that may seem obvious. Two people can live more cheaply together than apart. But a study done at Ohio State University found that, over and above that obvious fact, married people had 93 percent more wealth per person than single people. They found [...]
There’s an important new financial strategy that can be used only once in a lifetime, but which every wealthy married person ought to know about. It involves a tax break for widows and widowers that was made permanent by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, according to an article in Forbes magazine. Starting with [...]
Now that the confusion over the federal estate tax is resolved — the $5 million exemption is now permanent — you may think that’s the last you’ll have to worry about estate taxes and exemptions. Wrong. Each state has its own estate tax laws. So depending on where you live, your estate may not be [...]