Timely Action Can Substantially Reduce Property Tax Increases On Expiration Many clients with taxable estates undertake to reduce their estate tax exposure by using qualified personal residence trusts (“QPRTs” or “RITs”). QPRTs are trusts that offer an exception to normal estate and gift tax laws. They are used to remove the value of homes from …

CLIENTS SECURE FAVORABLE IRS RULINGS ON QPRTs, PRESERVING HOMESTEAD STATUS Read More »

Participants Who Turned A “Blind Eye” May Be Chased For Years The Madoff ponzi scandal is strikingly similar to the largest financial fraud in United Kingdom history, two decades ago in 1988 – yes, the year after the 1987 stock market crash and exactly twenty years prior to one of the worst recessions and market …

“MADOFF” CASE MAY FOLLOW PATH OF “BARLOW CLOWES,” TWO DECADES LATER Read More »

“Amendment One” Criticized And Controversial Florida voters this year approved Amendment One, a significant change to Florida’s “Save Our Homes” (“SOH”) assessment cap. It was promoted as an attempt to stimulate the real estate market in Florida and to deal with perceived unfairness in the taxing scheme. Amendment One does three primary things: (1) it …

NEW FLORIDA HOMESTEAD AND PROPERTY TAX LAW Read More »

Effects Of Decoupling Increases In Many States The disparity between the federal and state death tax exemptions has increased substantially, causing significant exposure to state death taxes where no federal death tax otherwise exists. In states such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and others, the potential negative impact caused by states who have …

DISPARITY BETWEEN STATE AND FEDERAL ESTATE TAX EXEMPTIONS RISE Read More »

What You Need To Know And How You Can Enhance Your Protection With recent bank failures, the goverment’s take over of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG, and the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, clients are understandably concerned and questioning their exposure to institutional failure. We have therefore compiled a summary of the …

CLEARING AWAY CONFUSION ON FDIC AND SIPC PROTECTION Read More »

A Focused Look At Expanding Coverage With the recent news of bank failures and the prospect of more on the horizon, we have been receiving many inquiries regarding FDIC insurance coverage on bank accounts. As such, we took this opportunity to study the area and we offer this advice to you. Specifically, this article addresses …

FDIC COVERAGE ON BANK ACCOUNTS Read More »

A Lapse Of Judgment And Other Gifting Nuances Involving Irrevocable Trusts The 1968 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case of D. Clifford Crummey v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue established the strategy that is relied on today to permit tax free gifts to certain trusts using the donor’s annual $12,000 gift tax exclusion. Providing “Crummey Notices” …

WHO’S MINDING THE CRUMMEYS AND ARE THEY HANGING? Read More »

A Roth individual retirement account, unlike a traditional IRA, allows for tax free growth of the capital base and tax free distributions (after the account has been in existence at least five years). Effective January 1, 2010, The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 will eliminate the existing income threshold governing conversions of …

ROTH IRA CONVERSIONS Read More »

Effective April 6, 2009, holders of frozen Stanford Group Company customer brokerage accounts may submit information to the Receiver which may lead to the release of their accounts. Clients affected by the Stanford scandal may submit their request through our firm or directly through the Receivership website:https://stanfordselfcert.ftitools.com/selfcert/

4/7/2009 The Firm’s series of private letter rulings authorizing so called “reverse qtips” have been recognized by commentators on a national basis as “startling,” in that the IRS approved the strategy.  Our efforts in this area were highlighted April 6, 2009 in a regarded national estate planning journal published by Steve Leimberg. See LISI Estate Planning …

FIRM’S WORK ON HOMESTEAD AND QPRTS RECEIVES NATIONAL ATTENTION Read More »