Starting this month, you'll notice some new names on our editorial advisory board list. We've added a committee of practitioners we feel have been underrepresented when it comes to input on content in our magazine.
I've advised generations of families for three decades. They often ask for advice for the younger generations, which we call Generation Two, or G2 for short.
Below are 21 points for advising G2. While much of the advice may be familiar, it may be helpful.
Tax & Accounting US, CCH Research & Learning Wolters Kluwer
Creating Creditor Protection Trusts Must Extend Beyond the Spendthrift Provision
In discussing the creditor protection of trusts, practitioners almost always focus first on whether the trust has a spendthrift provision and the protections afforded by the spendthrift provision. In our opinion, this is much like focusing on whether your car has a “Police Up Ahead Alerter” when in fact your car cannot go greater than 30 mph.
Sympathetic to the claims that so-called warehousing is generally bad. Another common concern is that because DAFs are generally pass-throughs to other charities, various sorts of donor abuses can occur and are more likely than when charitable contributions go directly to “real” charities. Such abuses range from sophisticated estate-planning transactions down to donors running contributions to athletic departments for tickets through a DAF to obtain a 100 percent charitable deduction rather than the allowed 80 percent deduction.
Fiduciary and personal interests occasionally conflict in the investment or management of trust property. Transactions which are “affected by a conflict” are generally voidable by an affected beneficiary.
The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the “2012 Act”), a relatively quiet tax bill with few changes, has had major impacts on our practice as estate planners.
In order to review Beyer and Dacus’ article that advises estate planners on how to advise cannabis users and growers, I had to first stoke up a joint, to get in the proper mood. Actually, I didn’t. The article advises that if I did use marijuana, dire consequences could occur, “emotional disturbances, the total inability to direct thoughts, the loss of all power to resist physical emotions,” and a few other bad things, like temporary memory loss.
The 2013 Tax Act, subtlety emerging into our estate planning life much the same way the IPhone has subtlety reduced our available free time, has had major impacts on our practice as estate planners.
