Should I Help my Child Buy a House? Often, young people and couples are turning to parents for assistance in making that home purchase. From an estate planning perspective, the devil is in the details; the success of the transaction will lie in making the proper choices given the facts.… Read More
The Real Story of Tony Curtis’ Last Will and Testament To an estate planning attorney what is astonishing is not that Tony Curtis disinherited his children, which frankly happens often enough not to produce comment, but that he did so publicly when he could have easily done it privately. … Read More
A Brief Introduction to International Trusts There are two main purposes of an international trust for U.S. citizens. The first is to combine domestic and offshore assets into a unified estate plan with a common trustee and set of instructions. The second use of interantional trusts is for asset protection.… Read More
Life Insurance and Estate Planning I can’t over-emphasize the importance life insurance can play in your estate plan! Often, a person or couple will delay buying life insurance until they feel they can better afford it. However, that’s not wise. The older you get, the more expensive new life insurance policies become and the less insurable you become. At some… Read More
Is there a California Estate Tax? California has no state Estate Tax, and is not likely to enact one in the next decade at least, based on current politics. That doesn’t mean that, as a California resident, you can necessarily forget about state Estate Taxes. If you have a diverse portfolio of investments, some of those assets may be in other states. … Read More
Estate Tax Exemption Likely to Remain at $3.5M The Wall Street Journal and other sources have reported that President Obama wants to freeze the estate tax credit at its current level. This means that estates with less than $3.5 million in value can be transferred free of the estate tax at death. In other words, the vast majority of us (98%) won’t have… Read More
