Estates & Trusts Services
Tax, Transfers & Insurance made easy !
Scope of Services
We assist our clients in estate and gift tax planning so that the client’s heirs and not the government, get the major portion of their hard-earned money. Some of the planning possibilities:
Gifting
Current tax law allows you to give away a particular amount per year per recipient (this amount is adjusted annually for inflation). Your spouse may join in the gift even if he or she is not an owner in the transferred asset. This means that you could transfer up to twice the amount per year to each of your heirs (without having to file a gift tax return). To double the annual exclusion yet again, you may want to include spouses of your children. The person receiving the gift does not need to be related to you. These annual gifts do not reduce your once-in-a-lifetime estate tax exclusion.
Unlimited Gifts
You can make unlimited gifts to pay for another individual’s medical expenses or school tuition as long as your payments are made directly to the institution.
Property Transfer
If you have property which is not needed for your retirement, maybe it is a candidate for transferring during your lifetime. If it is a large income-producer, the future income will be taxed to the new owner and not to you, plus the property will be out of your estate.
Spousal Transfer
You can generally make unlimited transfers to your spouse either during your lifetime or through your estate. There are generally no taxes on spousal transfers, regardless of size. But leaving everything to your spouse may not be a good idea, since doing so fails to utilize the lifetime exclusion amount in the estate of the first spouse to die. Planning will allow you to use the exclusion in both estates, and you’ll be able to transfer twice as much to your heirs free of estate tax.
Life Insurance Proceeds
With proper planning, certain life insurance proceeds can be kept out of your estate.