Category: Estates and Trusts
A common tool used by many of our estate planning clients is the use of a trust to protect a loved one’s inheritance. Where a trust is established, the inheritance is retained in trust for the benefit of a designated beneficiary, rather than distributed to…
When most people in their 20s or 30s think about estate planning, they assume that is something that their parents or grandparents should be worrying about. “I don’t yet have significant savings, let alone an ‘estate’ to plan for” is the common refrain. However, estate…
With a new year comes updated exemptions for estate tax exclusion and gift tax for 2024. What is the “estate tax exemption” and where is it going in 2024? The estate tax exemption refers to the value (or sum) of non-charitable bequests that can pass…
Thanksgiving. A time for food, football, and family. When families gather – particularly when multiple generations gather – it is not unusual for younger generations to broach the subject (sometimes after a glass of wine or two) about estate planning. We know this because, at Bulman…
There is a significant piece of new law on the books effective January 1, 2024 that will impact all business owners, including many Bulman Dunie estate planning clients. Anecdotally, from talking to our clients who will be impacted by this change, most are not aware…
Ch-ch-ChangesPretty soon you’re gonna get a little olderTime may change meBut I can’t trace timeI said that time may change meBut I can’t trace time “Changes” by David Bowie When clients sign their estate planning documents, whether it is a power of attorney, a will,…
When The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, passed away in August 2018, few could imagine how messy she had left her legal affairs. Nearly five years later, in July 2023, following years of nasty intra-family litigation, a Michigan jury concluded that a 2014 document found…
An irrevocable life insurance trust (or “ILIT”) can be a critical component of estate planning for certain clients. Typically, the client who might benefit from an ILIT is the client who anticipates exposure to estate tax. At present, this includes DC clients who have more…
We have previously discussed powers of attorney and their role in estate planning. When we circulate draft estate planning documents to clients, we often get questions about the language within these documents. Here, we’ll shed a little bit more light on the language within these…
When most folks hear of “decanting”, they think of wine. When estate and trust attorneys hear of “decanting”, yes, many of us think about wine, but we also think about an important legal principle. The Maryland legislature passed a bill that will head to Governor…
