Friday, March 11, 2011 Press Coverage of Estate Planning this Week (March 11, 2011)
Laura Saunders of the Wall Street Journal reports that the Administration's proposed 2012 federal budget would place limits on the length of Generation Skipping Transfer (GST) tax exemptions to 90 years. She states that chances of passage are slim, but if you are interested in creating trusts that exempt large sums from GST taxes over many generations, now may be the time to put the plan in motion. See Dynasty Trusts Under Attack (Mar. 5, 2011).
Elizabeth Ody of Bloomberg writes about another estate planning method that may become restricted in the near future. Ody writes that Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRAT) have been used by some estate planning attorneys to pass investment gains from children to their parents or grandparents to allow a better quality of life in the parents’ final years. The goal is to allow the transfer without dipping into the child’s lifetime gift-tax exemption. See GRATs Let Children Pass Millions to Mom or Granny Free of U.S. Gift Taxes (Mar. 9, 2011). |