September 13, 2021— Yesterday, Finseca got hold of a list of tax increases planned to pay for the $3.5 trillion dollar ‘soft’ infrastructure package. This is an early document, and we expect changes before the bill reaches President Biden’s desk – candidly, it could change as soon as tomorrow.
To see the current details, click here.
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“Intergenerational Split Dollar Planning Can Still Work. While Estate of Morrissette may encourage practitioners to transition away from recommending economic benefit split dollar arrangements, it is important to consider the impact that certain bad facts specifically noted by the Court in this case had on the decision. The results in this case may not significantly affect IGSD planning under the economic benefit regime, provided that the plan is established for the right non-tax reasons, the facts substantiate the treatment of the IGSD plan as a bona fide sale, and conservative discounts are taken when valuing repayment rights.”
To read the full article, click here.
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An interesting article by Laura Saunders for the Wall Street Journal on July 2, 2021.
“Large Roth IRAs owned by the superrich are in the tax spotlight now, and all savers should consider the implications for their own retirement accounts….The story [ProPublica] claimed some wealthy Americans have multimillion- or even billion-dollar, tax-advantaged retirement-savings accounts. The largest one cited was a Roth IRA with $5 billion in assets (as of 2019) belonging to PayPal founder and investor Peter Thiel.”
To read the full article, click here.
View PostA good piece put together by the advanced planning attorneys at John Hancock.
“The Tax Court Drops Another Shoe: What We Know (And What We Don’t) About Intergenerational Split Dollar”
Click here to access the piece.
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“Now that we have the Green Book, which covers all of the same ground as the STEP Act, it seems that we no longer need to be concerned with retroactive provisions and can advise clients to take certain proactive steps….Green Book = Green Light.”
To read the full article, click here.
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“Well-meaning advisors and their studious clients are not always running the numbers to help ensure that the strategies and techniques they are using will provide the best-expected results….We have found from years of experience that there is no substitute for taking out a calculator or spreadsheet and reviewing the most probable scenarios (as well as possible or unexpected situations) to determine the expected and non-expected outcome of any given technique in order to produce the most accurate map possible of the estate planning territory.”
To see the full article, click here.
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“As part of their comprehensive legacy plan, clients who are charitably inclined, hold significant highly appreciated assets, and wish to create a lifestyle “annuity” should consider a CRT, especially if they can benefit from an income tax charitable deduction. Selling an appreciated asset inside a CRT may provide an economically superior result compared to selling the same asset in a client’s own hands, especially when done in conjunction with purchasing additional life insurance through an irrevocable life insurance trust (“ILIT”).”
To read the full article, click here.
View Post“Financial advisers say they have been flooded with calls from clients who are trying to predict which of President Biden’s tax proposals will become law….I don’t know where we’re going with any of these taxes,” said Bill Schwartz, managing director of Wealthspire Advisors, which advises clients with $5 million to $20 million in assets. “But I do know it’s really difficult right now to justify what people call a loophole or what I call using the tax code to your advantage. In fact, it’s really hard to justify any of these techniques for the affluent right now, not that I think they’re right or wrong.”
To read the full article, click here.
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All of us are use to face-to-face meetings. We have always believed that they are essential. Now, a year into the pandemic, I wonder what we think now? An interesting Op-Ed in today’s NY Times.
“How many of those trips would have been unnecessary if I’d only Zoomed? My estimate runs somewhere between most and all. Aviation is a modern miracle; it is also expensive, annoying and environmentally costly. Now that videoconferencing has been shown to be an acceptable way to get work done, there’s no reason to quit it when the virus is gone. For years, it has been a truism that face-to-face meetings are far better than videoconferencing, for obvious reasons. They foster deeper relationships and perhaps better group decision-making. “I grew up in a sales culture that said, ‘You want to close a deal, you go get in front of the client,’” said Darren Marble, an entrepreneur based in Los Angeles who used to travel to New York every other week. When the pandemic hit, he didn’t know how he’d do business. “Working at home was antagonistic to everything I’d learned over my career,” he said. But in the Zoom era, everything worked out. In fact, Marble told me, 2020 was a “breakout year”; his firm, Crush Capital, recently raised more than $3 million from over 30 investors, all through Zoom. “Rapport is overrated,” Marble said.”
To read the full article, click here.
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“President Biden campaigned on a tax plan that would raise almost 4 trillion dollars – primarily by increasing taxes on individuals making more than $400,000 a year and raising the corporate rate. While the entirety of the plan is unlikely to become law this Congress it does provide a menu of policy options that Democrats in Congress will consider, especially once they turn to the forecast infrastructure and climate change bill expected this summer….What is likely to move forward, and what is likely to slip off the agenda?”
To read on for a breakdown on the prospects of the Biden tax plan in 2021, click here.
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