{"id":475,"date":"2010-08-11T18:37:20","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T01:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/?p=475"},"modified":"2020-07-31T10:40:54","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T17:40:54","slug":"estate-plan-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/estate-plan-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Estate Plan Is Out Of Date"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 hundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-overflow:visible;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Like most estate planning lawyers, all through the first decade of the 21st century, I thought we would not see a return to the $1,000,000 exemption.\u00a0 As a consequence, the excellent estate plans I\u2019ve been drafting for the past 9 years are now out of date. Under the new and unexpected tax laws these plans simply won\u2019t provide the protection for which they were designed\u2026 unless they undergo an update process.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now, all is not lost. The trusts my firm created are still solid trusts, and for married couples will continue to shelter the maximum amount of assets from estate taxes; but the flaw is that very little attention was paid to what happens to estates greater than $1,000,000, but less than $3,500,000 ($7,000,000 for married couples).\u00a0 Most families with assets valued in that range (including retirement accounts and life insurance proceeds payable on death) needed no or very little estate tax planning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, it appears likely that the exemption level will remain at $1,000,000 beginning in 2011 with no relief in sight.\u00a0 Even into the first quarter of 2010, most commentators thought Congress would act, but despite frequent news from Washington about the changes, knowledgeable commentators now almost unanimously believe there is no change coming in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">More important than listening to pundits, however, is looking at the law; and right now the law is that everything transferred as a result of your death will be subject to a 55% estate tax.\u00a0 I am ethically bound to inform you of the law as it exists and morally obligated to offer you reasonable solutions to potential problems.\u00a0 Almost all of my clients believe paying 55% of the value of their assets over $1,000,000 is an unacceptable result.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That\u2019s it in a nutshell.\u00a0 You have a beautiful estate plan drafted using the best tools available at the time of the drafting, but the planning is going awry due to unexpected conditions, and you should act now to protect your assets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What can be done?\u00a0 There are numerous tactics and strategies available that can provide you some protection.\u00a0 Purchasing life insurance, if you can, is one, and a more aggressive gifting program is another.\u00a0 Integrating the ownership of your assets with the next generation is another good strategy.\u00a0 Each of these suggestions, and all others, have an actual economic or social cost associated with them\u2014It is up to you to decide what to do.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Clients participating in my annual maintenance program (soon to be retooled as the Family Protector Program to better describe the reason why such a program is necessary) will hear more about these solutions when you meet with me.\u00a0 All others (or if you don\u2019t want to wait) call me now for a discussion about these issues.\u00a0 It will be an hour well spent.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19,37,56],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbfwclegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}