By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) I have assembled state rankings charts for many years showing which states are best for various types of trusts. With so many different charts and so many different variables, one variable stands out as being disregarded, or maybe even completely missed, by estate planners — the requirement in many of the states’ Domestic Asset Protection Trust (“DAPT”) statutes for the transferor to execute a new Affidavit of Solvency for each and every transfer to the DAPT. At first blush, one would think that this is merely a public policy requirement. We certainly don’t…
Current State of the Corporate Transparency Act
By Griffin Bridgers, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation) UPDATE AS OF FEBRUARY 27, 2025 In certain geographic locales, it is often said that if you don’t like the weather, you should just wait 30 minutes. Such seems to be the nature of the Corporate Transparency Act. Less than 24 hours after this newsletter was published, FinCEN issued a press release on February 27 stating that there will be no fines, penalties, or enforcement actions for any failure to file or update BOI information by the current deadlines (March 21, 2025 or, if later, 30 days after filing or a change). As part…
Heckerling 2025 Reports from the ABA
The 2025 Heckerling Institute was held in-person (and virtually) in Orlando on January 13-17 and marked the conference’s 59th year. The Phillip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning is the nation’s premier conference for estate planning professionals, offering unparalleled educational and professional development opportunities for all members of the estate planning team. Over the course of the conference’s five days, numerous timely topics of interest to estate planners of all designations—including, but not limited to, attorneys, trust officers, accountants, charitable giving professionals, elder law specialists, wealth management professionals, and nonprofit advisors. As they have done for many years, the American…
Will the Federal Estate and Gift Tax Exemption Drop In Half at the End of 2025?
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) I provided a similar analysis in a LinkedIn post in December of 2024. This article will expand that post, and with a similar conclusion. 2025 Tax Act? The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 doubled the federal estate and gift tax exemption with inflationary increases thereafter. With Donald Trump winning the presidential election and the Republicans winning control of both the Senate and the House, it is extremely likely that there will be a 2025 tax act that will include, among other things, an extension of the current federal estate and gift…
Journey to the Third Question: Navigating Planning for Those with an Alzheimer’s or Dementia Diagnosis
By Julieanne E. Steinbacher, J.D., CELA, LL.M. The estate planning and elder law fields need specific planning options geared at not just the legal documents but the aging and health care network that exists. Gone are the days when people seek out a “general practitioner.” Today, clients demand specialized providers and best-in-class care, with elder law being no different. As attorneys in estate planning and elder law, we can make a positive impact in our communities by providing the very best planning for individuals, family members and caregivers of those with a dementia or Alzheimer’s diagnosis. For my central Pennsylvania…
Dear President-Elect and New Congress: Please Fix the IRC Section 199A Pass-Thru Business Deduction Injustice Done to Lawyers, Accountants and Financial Planners
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 included an IRC 199A pass-thru business deduction that has been really nice for a whole lot of business owners. This deduction allows certain business owners to deduct 20% of their Qualified Business Income. However, not every taxpayer can receive this deduction. For a married couple with taxable income of no more than $315,000 (adjusted for inflation) and for an unmarried individual with taxable income of no more than $157,500 (adjusted for inflation), there are minimal rules and the 20% federal income tax deduction is available….
Nevada Restricted LLC/LP – How to Get Larger Valuation Discount
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) A large part of estate planning involves using techniques to compress value to transfer assets of larger value to the next generation with minimal taxes. To do this, estate planners often use family limited liability companies and family limited partnerships to facilitate gifting and installment sales of minority interests or non-voting interests to family members or irrevocable trusts for the benefit of family members. Under Code Section 2704(b) and Treasury Regulations §25.2704-2(a), if an interest in an entity is transferred to or for the benefit of a member of the transferor’s family, any…
FOMO: How the Fear of Missing Out Will Cause Bad Estate Planning Decisions Before the 12/31/2025 Sunset
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) When the clock strikes midnight the evening of December 31, 2025, the federal estate and gift exemption will drop in half and many wealthy people will kick themselves for failing to make their gifts and use their gift tax exemption in time. That is, assuming the incoming President and Congress don’t extend the current laws before they expire. What is FOMO? “FOMO” is the fear of missing out. Many wealthy people fear missing out on their large gifting prior to the end of end of 2025. If the federal estate and gift tax…
SLATs and the Reciprocal Trust Doctrine: Just Because Nearly Everyone Is Violating It Doesn’t Make It Okay
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) What is a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust? A Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (“SLAT”) is an irrevocable trust set up by one spouse for the benefit of the other spouse and other beneficiaries. The most frequently used version is the completed gift SLAT although incomplete gift SLATs can be used as a creditor protection tool and should be used more often than it is. The completed gift SLAT is primarily used for estate tax reduction purposes, and secondarily as a creditor protection tool. Because of the estate tax reduction benefits, especially since the settlor…
It’s Time to Stop Using Health, Education, Maintenance and Support Trusts!
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) Thanks to the generosity of Leimberg Information Services, we are pleased to provide you this recently published article on LISI. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Nearly Everybody Nearly every estate planning attorney uses “health, education, maintenance and support” (“HEMS”) as a distribution standard in the trusts they draft. This language is probably found in more than 95% of the trusts that are drafted nowadays. Some trusts use it as the sole method of making trust distributions, whereas others have provisions giving an interested trustee the ability to distribute under this standard and also allow an independent trustee…