Friday, April 22, 2011 Recent Press Coverage of Estate Planning (April 22, 2011)
Kelly Greene of the Wall Street Journal reports that with estate tax laws in flux, your estate plan needs to cover many contingencies, and may need updating. She suggests that the way many estate plans are currently worded could cause them to backfire, either by triggering unnecessary state estate taxes or by accidentally disinheriting a surviving spouse. See Does Your Trust Need a Tune-Up? (Apr. 16, 2011).
Bill Bischoff of SmartMoney reviews the basics of Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT), including how you can avoid estate taxes on your life insurance policies if they are correctly owned by an ILIT, and discusses whether you should consider long term disability insurance, and some tax implications related to those policies. See How to Avoid Taxes on Life Insurance (Apr. 20, 2011). |