If you’ve been appointed an executor of a loved one’s estate, or a successor trustee, and that person dies, your grief – not to mention your to-do list, including tasks ranging from planning the funeral, coordinating relatives coming in from out of town and (eventually) meeting with a trust administration or probate lawyer – can be quite overwhelming. First and foremost, take care of yourself…
IRS Notice Eliminating Estate and Gift Valuation Discounts Will Have a Huge Impact on Your Clients and Create a Huge Opportunity for You
The IRS recently proposed regulations that will effectively eliminate several commonly used valuation discount strategies for estate and gift tax purposes. If the IRS’s current timetable holds, your clients may lose the ability to take advantage of certain valuation discounts as early as January 1, 2017. For your clients who have an estate large enough to be concerned about the federal estate tax (individuals…
Wills vs. Revocable Trusts – Trusts Win Find Out What a Trust Can Do That a Will Can’t
Since the estate tax exemption now surpasses $5 million (but remains at $1 million in Massachusetts), many believe their revocable trust has become obsolete. The truth is, a revocable trust offers many benefits a plain old last will and testament can’t. Understanding why it’s still important to have a revocable trust will position you as the trusted advisor who can spot the issues and then call…
Breaking News – Higher Net Worth Clients Must Act Now …
Newly issued IRS Proposed Regulations signal the “sun-setting” of an important estate tax planning tool. This week, the IRS issued new proposed regulations that are designed to remove the effectiveness of an important strategy that allows for the discounting of the value of assets for estate and gift tax purposes. Valuation discounting techniques (often through such tools as FLPs and FLLCs) have allowed people to significantly…
Breaking News – Major Court Victory for Clients Who …
Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court just released opinion impacts many estate planning clients. Often, one strong recurring desire of estate planning clients is to protect their children’s inheritance from a child’s subsequent divorce. Ongoing “Inheritance Trusts” (also known as discretionary trusts) have been a solution to meet this goal. Yet, until today, this important tool in the Massachusetts estate planning attorney’s toolbox was called into question. In the Massachusetts’ divorce case of Pfannenstiehl v. Pfannenstiehl,…
8 Red Flags That Your Clients’ Estate Plans Are Out of Whack
How Uncovering Your Clients’ Legal Needs Means More Business for You Estate plans, like complex computer code, can get buggy. As a financial advisor, you have a fiduciary duty to your clients to help them avoid negative consequences of bad planning. That duty includes keeping tabs on legal issues related to estate planning and getting your clients the help they need, when they need it,…
5 Reasons to Protect Your Retirement Accounts Now
During your lifetime, your retirement account has asset protection, but as soon as you pass that account to a loved one, that protection evaporates. This means one lawsuit and POOF! Your life long, hard earned savings could be gone. Fortunately, there is an answer. A special trust called a “Standalone Retirement Trust” (SRT) can protect inherited assets from your beneficiaries’ creditors. We’ll show you what…
SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE WORKSHOP HELD
The Bernstein Law Group held a Successor Trustee Workshop on Thursday, November 12, 2015 at the Cummings Center in Beverly, MA. This presentation was geared to those who will carry out the responsibility of Trustee for a living trust, Health Care Agents, and agents under Power of Attorney. At the workshop, Attorney Paul Bernstein provided attendees with an understanding of the basics of estate planning. In addition,…
ATTORNEY PAUL BERNSTEIN RECEIVES BOARD-CERTIFICATION AS AN ESTATE PLANNING LAW SPECIALIST
Attorney Paul Bernstein is newly Board-certified as an Estate Planning Law Specialist (EPLS) by the Estate Planning Law Specialist Board, Inc., the only such certification accredited by the American Bar Association. Attorney Bernstein joins a select group of 75 attorneys nationwide, and is one of only two in Massachusetts, to have obtained the EPLS Board-certification. To become Board-certified as an Estate Planning Law Specialist (ELPS),…
ATTORNEY BERNSTEIN PARTICIPATES IN PANEL PRESENTATION
On April 10, 2015, Attorney Bernstein participated as a panel member at a presentation of the Elder Law Institute XXI. Presented by Suffolk University Law School’s Health & Biomedical Law Concentration and MassNAELA, the topic of discussion was “Dissecting Trust Agreements-What Makes Them Work?” The institute highlighted the essential elements of a “typical” trust: the meaning of each clause, which clauses could be added, and…