By Jeffrey M. Verdon, Esq., Travor Moses, Esq. & Fernando Goyco-Covas, Esq. Puerto Rico’s politicians have aimed to spur investment and economic activity in Puerto Rico by changing their tax code. These series of reforms, including the Individual Investors Act (Act 22-2012 and 138-2012), now mean that Puerto Rico offers the potential for exceptionally advantageous United States and Puerto Rican income tax exemptions which, as long as certain requirements are met within the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “IRC”),[i] can provide remarkable income tax relief to a wide universe of US citizens, residents, and even…
New Trustee Liability: Failure to Review Trust-Owned Life Insurance
By Richard Gilman, CFP® and Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law The Uniform Prudent Investor Act (UPIA) requires trustees of Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT) to evaluate the appropriateness of the Trust Owned Life Insurance (TOLI) and to manage ILIT assets in a manner that minimizes costs and maximizes benefits to trust beneficiaries. This equates to a duty to not only acquire the right policy, but to review it periodically to be sure it still is in the best interests of the beneficiaries. (Be aware that…
PLR Opens Door to Post-Death Exchanges of Non-Qualified Annuities Tax-Free!
By Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) & Michael E. Kitces, MSFS, MTAX, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CASL IRC § 1035 generally allows taxpayers to make a tax-free exchange of one annuity for another better suited to the taxpayer’s needs. Until recently, however, this benefit was not available to taxpayers who inherited non-qualified annuities. Such taxpayers were stuck with the annuity selected by the decedent no matter how unfavorable it may have been for them. Recently issued PLR 201330016 now gives a green light to tax-free exchanges of such annuities, however, provided that certain requirements are satisfied. This…
7 Tips for Taking Better Notes & Being More Efficient!
By Kristina Schneider & Megan DeLaGarza, Executive Assistants Whether you’re an executive assistant or any other type of administrative staff member, note-taking is an inevitable and unavoidable task that you will have in your daily routine. There are so many different details and tasks necessary to complete your job that it is impossible to keep track of them all. If you aren’t currently in the practice of taking notes during your meetings with your boss or supervisor, we highly recommend that you start now. It’s a great way to prevent overlooking the small items and, if there’s ever any confusion…
Reflections on Building a Boutique Firm: Looking Back Four Years Later by Tom Wallerstein
Back in July, my firm celebrated its fourth anniversary. I can’t believe it has been that long. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting at my desk at Quinn Emanuel, thinking about cases worth millions of dollars but still too small to be economically handled by traditional Biglaw firms. I wondered if I might try to serve a growing market hungry for less expensive, but still high quality litigation. Not long thereafter I was conspiring with my partner over the details, drafting business plans, and conducting informal marketing surveys. As my firm approaches its fourth anniversary, it’s interesting for…
LISI: The Beginning of the Post-Windsor Cases
Thanks to generosity of Robert Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) of Keebler & Associates, LLP, and Leimberg Information Services, we are pleased to provide to you a recently published article on LISI, which discusses two recent cases deciding issues facing same-sex married couples. “As we all know, on June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States held that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment. Section 3 of DOMA defined ‘marriage’ to mean ‘only a legal union between one man and one woman…
Helping Your Clients with Portability
With passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act in 2012, portability has now been made “permanent”. Introduced into law for the first time in 2011 with the 2010 Tax Act, the concept of portability permits a married couple to fully utilize its combined $10 million (and now $10.5 million) lifetime exemption as indexed by letting the surviving spouse claim any unused portion of the deceased spouse’s exemption. With this provision now permanent, the surviving spouse no longer has a time limit to decide how best to use the increased exemption both during life through increased gifting and at death by…
Steve Oshins on ILM 201330033: Ruling on Gift and Estate Tax Consequences of Self-Cancelling Installment Notes
Steve Oshins on ILM 201330033: Ruling on Gift and Estate Tax Consequences of Self-Cancelling Installment Notes Thanks to generosity of Leimberg Information Services and nationally renowned estate planning attorney, Steven J. Oshins, J.D., AEP (Distinguished), we are pleased to provide to you a recently published article on LISI, which discusses two recent cases deciding issues facing same-sex married couples. “In this case, the value of the notes was based upon the §7520 tables. The decedent accounted for the self-cancellation mechanism by adjusting the principal to be repaid or the interest rate that applied to the principal. However, the IRS did…
Planning for Clients with Chronic Illnesses
Reproduced with the expressed written consent and permission from Robert L. Moshman, Esq., author of 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. “With the waning importance of the estate tax, planning for chronic illness is an area where estate planners can do a lot of good for many people.” —Martin M. Shenkman, CPA, MBA, JD, PFS, AEP Chronic illness may be the forest that gets overlooked amidst the trees. It is all around us, affecting about one out of every two American adults. Yet, incredibly,…
Practical Planner – Your Planning Team (Volume 8, Issue 3)
Martin “Marty” Shenkman, Esq., CPA, MBA is an estate planning attorney and Certified Public Accountant who authors a number of publications each month, including his monthly e-mail newsletter, “Practical Planner“. Below is the second installment from Marty’s May/June 2013 newsletter. To be added to Marty’s monthly e-mail distribution list, e-mail newsletter@shenkmanlaw.com. YOUR PLANNING TEAM Summary: Fostering a coordinated financial and estate planning team is one of the most important steps that you can take to assure that your planning is properly handled. My apologies if some portions of this article ruffle feathers, but that’s far better than the adverse consequences…