A Once in 30-Year Opportunity to Build Your Practice in 2014 By Jeffrey Dunham, Financial Advisor | Volume 2, Issue 1 (January 2014) As The End of the Great Migration into BondsSM continues, it is presenting financial advisors with a unique opportunity to build their practice while simultaneously helping investors avoid a destruction of wealth that we feel may rival the 2008/2009 financial crisis. This opportunity exists because of two very simple yet crucial facts. The recognition of these facts can be the difference between a financial advisor having an average year or making 2014 a career year. First, is the vast…
The Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)—After the Final Regulations
By Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) | Volume 2, Issue 1 (January 2014) The Final Regulations for Section 1411 and the NIIT were released on December 2, 2013. Along with the release of the Final Regulations, new 2013 Proposed Regulations were also released. While the Final Regulations generally made the 2012 Proposed Regulations final, there were some very interesting changes and additions made in both the Final Regulations and the 2013 Proposed Regulations. This article will point out some of the more interesting aspects of the Regulations. Properly Allocable Deductions Although the Final Regulations retained the requirement…
Top Ten Reasons Why People with Even Modest Estates Need Estate Planning
By Heidi C. Freeman, J.D. | Volume 2, Issue 1 (January 2014) The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (actually passed on January 1, 2013), permanently increased the gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions to $5 million per person. In 2014, adjusted for inflation, the amount is actually $5.34 million per person ($10.68 million for a married couple). Due to the increased exemption amounts and the addition of portability, significantly fewer clients are in need of transfer tax planning. This article provides ten reasons why clients who do not have a transfer tax concern still have compelling estate planning…
Help Your Clients by Using NING Trusts
For your wealthy clients that are looking to avoid state income taxes, one strategy to consider is to move their money and assets into trusts established in states with lower or even no tax, such as Delaware, Alaska and Nevada. One such strategy is something an Incomplete Non-Grantor Trust, set up in Delaware (also known as a “DING”) and now its Nevada counterpart (“NING”). See Bloomberg article: Wealthy N.Y. Residents Escape Tax With Trusts in Nevada Also, you may be interested in our On-Demand Program with nationally renowned estate and asset protection attorneys, William Lipkind and Steven Oshins. See: “The…
The Year in Review – 2013
Reproduced with the expressed written consent and permission from Robert L. Moshman, Esq., author of the The Estate Analyst. To contact Bob Moshman to be included on his distribution list of his monthly newsletter, e-mail Bob at bmoshman@optonline.net. Friends, counsel, and certified public accountants, lend me your eyes for the last interruption of billable hours in 2013, so that we may collectively tiptoe across the finish line of another spectacularly dysfunctional year. Editor’s Note: Please, no tweaking, tweeting, or texting, and definitely no twerking…seriously, don’t do it! Or as the Oxford Dictionary would now say, “srsly.” In the wake of…
Steve Oshins & Bob Keebler on Berlinger v. Casselberry: Discretionary Trusts Available to Alimony Creditor Steve Leimberg’s Asset Protection Planning Newsletter
Thanks to generosity of Leimberg Information Services, we are pleased to provide to you a recently published article on LISI, where nationally renowned estate and asset protection attorney, Steve Oshins, and CPA, Bob Keebler, report on a new Florida case determining whether an alimony creditor can access distributions from Florida discretionary trusts. “The uniqueness of this case is that writs of garnishment were applied to discretionary trusts. This violates the general rule that discretionary trusts are protected from all classes of creditors and support trusts (which must rely on their spendthrift provision for protection) are protected from all creditors except…
NEW SOFTWARE – Robert Keebler’s Complete Net Investment Income Tax (“NIIT”) Calculator
With the recent announcement about the release of the final regs for the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax, nationally renowned CPA, Robert S. Keebler, has released a new calculator to help estate planning professionals run the numbers for clients with his Complete Net Investment Income Tax (“NIIT”) Calculator. This is a unique calculator that allow you to input the necessary income and expenses for filling out the DRAFT versions of Form 8959 (the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax Form) and Form 8960 (the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax Form). These inputs are then transferred directly to the corresponding IRS Form and…
8th Annual Meeting of The Academy of Special Needs Planners
Earlier today, The Academy of Special Needs Planner announced their 8th Annual Meeting to be held on March 27-29, 2014 in Denver. View the agenda Check out this video: This year’s topics include: The Latest and Greatest on Special Needs Planning and the Affordable Care Act – Scott Solkoff, Ann Koerner, and Scott MacDonald Moderator: Kevin Urbatsch Special Needs Planning, DOMA and Other Marriage-Related Issues – Cynthia Barrett Special Needs Planning for Housing, Food Assistance, Employment and Other Benefits – Blaine Brockman & Patricia E. Kefalas Dudek Latest SSI Updates and Understanding and Using SSI Regional Counsel Options – By…
Books Now Available Through The Ultimate Estate Planner
At The Ultimate Estate Planner, Inc., we are always trying to find the best products and resources available to assist practitioners. One of the ways that many estate planning professionals learn is through the more traditional method of reading books (yes, actual books!). We are pleased to team up with The National Underwriter Company and bring to you a number of books available for purchase through our website. We will be adding more publications in the next few weeks, so be sure to come back for more! ESTATE PLANNING BOOKS The Tools & Techniques of Estate Planning, 16th Edition Authors:…
2013 Year-End Tax Planning Ideas (Part 3)
By Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) As we near the end of 2013, year-end tax planning again takes center stage. In the last two newsletters we covered two of the most important year-end planning strategies in detail—loss harvesting and Roth IRA conversions. In this newsletter we summarize a number of other strategies that may produce substantial tax savings. Making Trust Distributions The tax brackets for trusts are much more compressed than the tax brackets for individuals. Trusts begin being taxed at the top rate of 39.6% when income rises above $11,950. By contrast, individuals filing joint returns don’t…