Steve Oshins’ 4th Annual Domestic Asset Protection Trust State Rankings Chart Released

Nationally renowned estate planning and asset protection attorney, Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished), has just released his 4th Annual Domestic Asset Protection Trust State Rankings Chart. Some of the Highlights: 1. South Dakota closes in on Nevada, but doesn’t quite get there. These are still the top two states. 2. Ohio comes from nowhere to jump into the first tier. 3. Alaska, Tennessee, Wyoming and Utah all make positive changes. 4. Utah remains ranked low because of its state income tax uncertainty (but is now a great state for Utah residents). 5. For the first time ever, the State…

PLR 201310002: DING Redux

Reproduced with Permission by and Courtesy of Leimberg Information Services, Inc. (LISI). For information about how to subscribe to LISI, click here. “A DING trust (standing for Delaware Incomplete Non-Grantor trust) is a strategy designed to eliminate State income taxes on the Grantor’s investment income by having the Grantor transfer his investments to a trust domiciled in a non-tax state which transfer is, on the one hand, an incomplete gift and, on the other hand, not made to a grantor trust. After a hiatus of some six years, the IRS has now ruled, in PLR 201310002 in favor of a…

Estate Planning & Asset Protection in 2013 & Beyond by Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished)

The House has just approved the Senate bill. President Obama will sign it later this week. Now what? [Hint: You’ll be doing NEARLY EXACTLY what you’ve been doing the past few months, but without the time pressure.] Estate Planning: We now have a “permanent” $5MM (indexed for inflation) estate, gift and GSTT exemption and a 40% tax rate. Remember that the word “permanent” really means “until they change it next time”. This is an opportunity for all of your clients to continue to use their $5MM gift and GSTT exemptions by making gifts into Dynasty Trusts. All of our wealthy…

Steve Oshins’ Tips for Getting Through the Pre-Fiscal Cliff Gifting Chaos

Nearly everybody is out of 2012 capacity at this point. So… Consider setting up a simple one-page gift trust with just the essential terms so you have a valid trust under the state law you are selecting. Give the settlor’s best friend as Trust Protector the power to completely amend and restate the trust (maybe for a selected period of time like three months) in that Trust Protector’s sole and absolute discretion (and obviously draft around a GPOA). Get it fully executed and funded with the $5MM gift before year-end. Enjoy the New Year’s. Take a deep breath. Reconvene in…

Asset Protection Jurisdictions Compared: Fine-Tuning the DAPT with Steve Oshins

By Robert L. Moshman, Esq. | The Estate Analyst Since 1997, 13 states have enacted laws permitting self-settled trusts. Including Colorado, which has had a highly questionable statute on its books since long before the other states, there are a total of 14 states with some form of domestic asset protection trust (DAPT) laws. Each of these DAPT jurisdictions has taken its own approach, and there are critical variations. To some extent, the 14 states have jockeyed for competitive edge to position themselves as attractive havens for trust funds. Here, we have consulted Nevada attorney Steve Oshins, an authority on…

Steve Oshins & the Hybrid Domestic Asset Protection Trust

Reproduced with Permission by and Courtesy of Leimberg Information Services, Inc. (LISI). For information about how to subscribe to LISI, click here. “After approximately 15 years since the first DAPT legislation passed, not a single DAPT has been tested all the way through the court system. Most likely this is because such a large supermajority believes that if tested the DAPT will work to protect its assets from a creditor of the settlor. However, despite the very high likelihood of protection, if there is a way to increase the odds of success even more, then such a strategy should be…

New Book Helps You Plan for and Protect Your Assets

Orange County, California (March 29, 2012) – There are few things in life more certain than death and taxes and perhaps, in today’s society, Law suits. However, the fact is few people actually plan for them. In the New Book The Ladder of Success: An Asset Protection Planning Primer, Attorney Jeffrey R. Matsen (“Top 100 Attorneys in U.S.” Worth Magazine) has provided a straightforward and elementary description of what Asset Protection really is and demonstrates how it can be effectively implemented by taking various steps, like rungs on a ladder, to truly climb the ladder of success. “The one constant…

Steve Oshins’ 3rd Annual DAPT Ranking Chart & Other Free Updated Charts Available to Download

Steve Oshins’ 3rd Annual Domestic Asset Protection Trust Ranking Chart Thanks to the generosity of nationally renowned estate planning and asset protection attorney, Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) for providing his 3rd Annual Domestic Asset Protection Trust Ranking Chart. For the first time since the chart was originally created, this chart now assigns numerical rankings to each DAPT state. The approximate weights assigned to each variable are listed. However, please note that in the interests of impartiality, since Nevada is the only state (of the top eight states per the rankings) that doesn’t allow divorcing spouses to access its…

How Do You Convince Clients to Actually Do GRATs (and Other Estate Tax Planning)?

Most practitioners know about the estate tax planning “window of opportunity” that may be closing soon. We’ve only got the $5.12 million gift tax exemption until year-end and President Obama’s budget proposal has targeted “loopholes” like GRATs and valuation discounts. You would think these urgencies would be enough to convince high net worth clients to move forward with advanced-level planning (like Dynasty Trusts, GRATs, LLCs, installment sales and completed gift DAPTs) — but it’s still difficult to get people to take action! Having run into this client procrastination problem too many times, I realized that this has less to do…

Steve Oshins on Weddell v. H20, Inc: Nevada Supreme Court Affirms Creditor Protection Benefits of Nevada LLCs

Reproduced with Permission by and Courtesy of Leimberg Information Services, Inc. (LISI). For information about how to subscribe to LISI, click here. “Prohibiting the creditor from exercising the debtor’s management rights reflects the principle that LLC members should be able to choose those members with whom they associate. Thus, the historical rationale for charging order protection was to protect the other members of an LLC where one member has a personal creditor problem. However, as asset protection planning has evolved and the competition among the states to have the most protective asset protection laws has intensified, the asset protection planners…