Download Printable Article By Edwin P. Morrow III, J.D., LL.M. (Tax), CFP®, RFC® There is increasingly becoming an important tool in their trust planning arsenal for high income taxpayers– the incomplete gift, non-grantor trust (“ING”). These trusts are often colloquially known as “DINGs” or “NINGs”, short for Delaware or Nevada Incomplete Gift Non Grantor Trusts, even though other states with similar strong DAPT laws, such as Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming or Ohio, may also be used. Let’s explain the ING, why it’s used, what state limitations exist and how it can be used beyond state income tax avoidance. What is…
Hybrid DAPTs, Regular DAPTs and the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act
Download Printable Article By Steven J. Oshins Esq., AEP (Distinguished) A small minority of states have adopted the new Uniform Voidable Transactions Act (“UVTA”). This Act is actually not a new Act. It is supposedly merely a renamed version of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, but with certain changes. These changes include substantial Comments (i.e., comments made as a part of the UVTA by the Drafting Committee) that have generated controversy in large part because of their conclusive nature on certain open issues. This article will focus on those Comments that are specifically directed at Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (“DAPTs”)….
Blue Sky Planning: Defining What’s Possible
By Jason Oshins, Financial Advisor, MBA As I view the world around me, I often consider the following question: “If we designed this from scratch, how would it look?” And frequently, it wouldn’t resemble what currently exists. How would, say, the airline industry look? What would be the structure of healthcare? Would women wear heels and men wear ties? If we could get thoughtful, provocative pragmatists in a room, what would they create? I often think about how this relates to financial planning – estate planning, investment planning, retirement planning, and insurance planning. In this article, I begin with the aforementioned…
ABA Heckerling Reports from the 2016 Heckerling Institute
For the past 17 years, the American Bar Association Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law with the permission of the University of Miami School of Law, releases several extensive reports highlighting the various lectures and proceedings of the Heckerling Institute, one of the nation’s largest estate planning conferences, held every year in January. This past January 2016, marked the 50th Annual Heckerling Institute. To view, download and access these extensive reports, please click here to visit the ABA’s website. Further, at the above website, you can also access reports from prior Heckerling Institutes as well. We, at The…
5 Things Every Estate Planning Attorney Needs to Know About Using an Asset Protection Single Member LLC
By Mason D. Salisbury, J.D. Single Member Limited Liability Companies (or “SMLLCs”) are the basic building blocks of asset protection entities. For many clients, SMLLCs may be the only asset protection entity they need. However, not all SMLLCs are created equal as asset protectors and some (too many) are hardly worth the paper they are filed on. An asset protection SMLLC is specifically organized at every point to fight and win against creditor attorneys, that is, to actually provide asset protection if challenged. Below are five things every estate planning attorney should know about using SMLLCs to protect client’s assets….
Cloud Still Hangs Over Validity of Nevada’s Perpetuities Law
Download Printable Article By Matthew D. Blattmachr, Trust Officer Despite the contention by some that the recent decision of the Nevada Supreme Court in Bullion Monarch Mining, Inc. v. Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc., 131 Nev. Advance Opinion 13 (Bullion) eliminates any question concerning the invalidity of the Nevada statute permitting trusts to last for 365 years, a careful review of this well written decision does not, in fact, seem to do so. In fact, the decision does not even appear related to trusts. The court frames the question it was asked to answer as “whether Nevada’s “Rule Against Perpetuities appl[ies]…
Nevada Supreme Court Approves 365-Year Dynasty Trusts and Sends a Message
Download Printable Article By Steven J. Oshins Esq., AEP (Distinguished) In a unanimous opinion issued on March 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the State of Nevada made a bold statement by ratifying the Nevada 365-year rule against perpetuities in the case of Bullion Monarch Mining, Inc. v. Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc., 131 Nev. Advance Opinion 13 (2015). Although the 365-year perpetuities law was already firmly engraved in the Nevada statutes and therefore this court case should have gone largely unnoticed, it was the message sent by the Nevada Supreme Court Justices to a small group of anti-Nevada promoters that…
PBS Special: Caring For Mom & Dad
We recently received this e-mail from our esteemed colleague, Joan Medeiros, who brought to our attention a PBS Special on the challenges that caregivers of the elderly face: “I am frequently asked by clients about how to care for their elderly family members. I know from personal experience how difficult, emotional, and complicated caring for an elderly parent can be. PBS aired a very good special regarding this issue last Thursday night, but it also available for viewing via their website, which I have listed below. I thought you might have some interest in watching it; please feel free to…
New Single Member LLC Veil Piercing Case Is a Wakeup Call to Attorneys and Spells Opportunity
Download Printable Article By Mason D. Salisbury, J.D. The case in point is the Wyoming Supreme Court’s Greenhunter Energy, Inc. v. Western, 2014 WY 144, 2014 WL 5794332 (WY S.C., Nov. 7, 2014). First and foremost, Greenhunter reminds us that single member LLCs (“SMLLCs”) really do get pierced! But contrary to some initial reactions, Greenhunter is not the death knell for SMLLCs as asset protectors, far from it! The better take on Greenhunter with its emphasis on the multipart State court analysis of SMLLC piercing “factors” is twofold. One, Greenhunter is most certainly a wakeup call to drafting attorneys that…
Creating Your List – Things to Talk About With Your Clients in 2015
It happens to all of us. We go to a wonderful conference; we see a great webinar; we read an important article – and then we plan to change the conversation with referral sources and clients. So, when the inevitable challenges of our personal and professional reality comes in, we end up singing the same old songs of wealth, estate tax, financial, and asset protection planning – thinking months later, where did the change in conversation go? Successful practitioners explain to us that the way their practice found stability and growth was through finding planning that they could execute on,…