Niche Trusts

Written by TEPLG. Posted in Blog, Newsletters, Wealth Counselor

Revocable Living, Irrevocable Life Insurance, Charitable Lead, and Grantor Retained Annuity – these are trust descriptors that are familiar to estate planning professionals. However, there are many less well-known types of trusts that clients may ask about or benefit from having. Some of those other types of trusts will fill an estate planning need like no other arrangement can. Some arrangements called “trusts” do not fit the traditional trust definition. Still other things called “trusts” are outright shams.

As professionals, we need to know about the lesser-known trusts, when to use them, when to avoid them, and when to warn our clients to get out of them.

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Top Income Tax Planning Ideas for 2011 and 2012

Written by TEPLG. Posted in Blog, Newsletters, Wealth Counselor

With the recent discussions about closing tax loopholes and increasing taxes for the “wealthy” incident to increasing the national debt limit, clients are beginning to fear that the taxes on their wealth will increase. Even without higher tax rates, wealthier Americans will pay more in taxes if allowable deductions (possibly charitable) and exemptions (probably estate tax) are lowered.

We need to be prepared to help our clients as they begin to draw down retirement savings and look for more tax-efficient investments for their stocks, bonds, real estate and savings.

In this post of The Wealth Counselor, we will examine some of the top income tax planning ideas to implement in 2011 and 2012.

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Why You MUST Use a Living Trust When Planning with Business Owners

Written by TEPLG. Posted in Blog, Daily Plan-It, Newsletters

Previously, we discussed how to grow your business by doing business owner reviews. In this issue, we want to strongly recommend that if you are working with a business owner, using a Revocable Living Trust (RLT) as the main planning tool is critical for several reasons.

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Using the Power of Trusts to Spur Your Estate Planning

Written by TEPLG. Posted in Blog, Newsletters, Wealth Advisor

Estate planning changed again on January 1, 2011, when certain key provisions of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010, signed by President Obama on December 17, 2010, took effect.

Suddenly, the federal estate tax exemption increased to $5 million ($10 million for a married couple with proper planning). As a result, most people are not affected by the federal estate tax if they die this year or next. Because the news reports did not focus on the “this year or next” part, many people took this to mean that they no longer need to do any estate planning. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of the reasons families need to plan their estates are unrelated to estate taxes, and those tax changes are only until 2013.

In this issue of The Wealth Advisor, we will look at what people want in their estate planning, why failure to plan is courting disaster, and how the power of trusts can help you achieve your estate planning needs and desires.

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Income Tax Planning Concepts in Estate Planning

Written by TEPLG. Posted in Blog, Newsletters, Wealth Counselor

Estate planning sometimes has income tax effects. All advisors, therefore, should be at least aware of some basics of income tax planning to best serve their clients.

In this post of The Wealth Counselor, we will examine some of the basics of income tax planning and some of the techniques used in estate tax planning that have income tax impacts.

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The Future of Medicaid and Medicare

Written by TEPLG. Posted in Blog, Elder Counselor, Newsletters

In our last Elder Counselor post, we reported about the federal government’s efforts to decrease spending in 2011 by making sweeping cuts to numerous federally funded programs to avoid a government shutdown. Four months later, the focus on cutting Medicaid and Medicare benefits has gained momentum, despite documented evidence of the many benefits of Medicaid, as well as the huge detrimental impact cutting either program can have on individual states.

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Special Needs Planning Issues Following Divorce

Written by TEPLG. Posted in Blog, Elder Counselor, Newsletters

Divorce can be complicated, frustrating, disappointing, expensive, along with a whole range of other emotions, as anyone who has endured this type of proceeding can attest. As difficult as the issues can be in a divorce proceeding, can you imagine what happens when divorce involves a child with a disability?

This issue of The ElderCounselorTM focuses on one case study to illustrate how much more difficult the issues can be when a child with a disability is involved in the marital split, and how important it is to have someone knowledgeable in government benefits and special needs planning issues participate in the proceedings

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