Estate Planning

Estate Planning is the process of organizing your affairs to prepare your family for death or incapacity.  Its not planning you do for yourself, but for the benefit of those you care about.  Because it involves the most complex and sometimes emotional issues surrounding family, relationships, business, taxes, healthcare, property and faith, estate planning may well be the broadest single area of American law.

In this blog I write about recent developments in Estate Planning that may be of use to those who are vigilant about their planning, or those involved with planning for their clients.  If you want to contact our office, follow this link.

No Deal on the Estate Tax, no surprise

Written on May 19, 2010 by ashaikh in Estate Planning, main
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It appears there was no deal on the Estate Tax, according to a report by "the Hill."  In all likelihood, there never was anything resembling a deal.  The United States Senate has been in a state of paralysis for some time. As they did not bother to fix the estate tax last year, or do it yet, the likelihood continues to be it will not happen at all until after the midterm elections.  
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Pay to store your internet passwords?

Written on April 21, 2010 by ashaikh in Estate Planning, main
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The Financial Times (registration required) has an article on how to store your internet passwords in the event of death.  While accessing financial records may be an obvious issue, the article goes into assets such as "second life" real estate.  I must admit that while I know about second life from the media, I don't [...]

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Trust Mill Unauthorized Practice of Law in Indiana

Written on April 16, 2010 by ashaikh in Estate Planning, main
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A Trust mill in Indiana was found to have engaged in the "unauthorized practice of law" -largely because of the small role lawyers had in the entire process.  The plans were sold and pre-set my unlicensed salespeople.  There was a "panel" of lawyers the company utilized to review the matter.  However, what moved the court [...]

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The Bush Tax Cuts: They are here! (in January)

Written on December 22, 2009 by ashaikh in Estate Planning, main
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It appears plain that Congress will do nothing on the Estate Tax this year.  This means the Bush tax cuts are going ahead and the estate tax will be abolished for 2010.  Its possible there will be a temporary or permanant fix sometime in 2010.  The prospect that any change will be retroactive is also possible. [...]

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Is “portability” comming?

Written on October 24, 2009 by ashaikh in Estate Planning, main
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Here's the "problem" in need of some sort of a solution. The federal government has an estate tax. Among the features of the estate tax is an "applicable exclusion amount." In 2009, this is $3,500,000. Generally speaking, the property of the deceased spouse transfers to the surviving spouse.  The surviving spouse has only one "applicable [...]

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