Estate Planning With Life Insurance

Life insurance can serve many purposes.  Whether you own a policy as income replacement security for your family, through your employer or as an investment asset, life insurance can be a multi-dimensional tool.  However, with all of the financial planning instruments...

Asset Protection Through Estate Planning

It is a natural inclination to want to protect the assets that you have worked hard to obtain.  There are many levels of asset protection and the proper method must be determined depending not only on the type of asset, but also on the possible source, timing and...

The Notice Requirement for Gifts in Trust

One of the primary techniques used to reduce a person’s taxable estate is for him or her to make gifts during life to other individuals, usually children or grandchildren, using the annual gift tax exemption ($14,000 in 2014).  An individual can make a gift of up to...

Definition of the Month: Crummey Notice

The Crummey Notice takes its name from the 1968 decision in Crummey v. Commissioner, 397 F.2d 82, 88 (9th Cir. 1968) in which it was established that a gift in trust qualifies for the annual Gift Tax exclusion as long as the trust’s beneficiaries have the power to...