Category Archives: Finseca

 The Washington Report: – Wealth Transfer Edition

“The IRS continues its attack on valuations, and there’s no end in sight.  The U.S. Tax Court recently issued its decision in Estate of Cecil v. Commissioner. The decision is important because it contributes to the discussion whether tax affecting is necessary and/or appropriate when valuing an S corporation. Additionally, the decision reveals the zeal with which the IRS is pursuing wealthy taxpayers on valuation matters and highlights the importance of deep expertise needed for successful business succession planning and using reliable appraisals. Taxpayers with successful family-owned businesses who desire to retain ownership of the business within the family are well advised to engage advisors well versed in business succession planning.  Reliable appraisals matter.”

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The Washington Report: – Wealth Transfer Edition

“Valuation appears to be trending within the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) these days: insurance policy valuations, CCAs regarding GRATs, charitable planning targeted, and now the Connelly case.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit found that the value of life insurance proceeds funding a redemption buy-sell agreement should be included in the value of a closely-held business for estate tax purposes, changing conventional thinking.  Business owners should consider a cadence of regularly reviewing their buy-sell agreements. These are living, breathing documents. If their buy-sell agreement happens to be a redemption agreement, the economics should be reviewed assuming the same treatment as the Connelly case. It may be that these buy-sell agreements are woefully underfunded, triggering an audit of their life insurance plans. And if the owner has an agreement in place, they should follow it to the letter, not set-it-and-forget-it.”

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The Washington Report: – Wealth Transfer Edition

“Abusive taxpayer transactions simply continue to raise the ire of the IRS. Commonly seen as a very conservative planning technique, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has recently taken extreme positions to challenge the use of grantor retained annuity trusts (“GRATs”).  The IRS in a recent CCA takes the position that by undervaluing the assets transferred to a GRAT, the GRAT annuity interest is not a “qualified interest,” and therefore the entire transfer is a taxable gift. The IRS finds that the transferred interest can be undervalued to such an extent that it ceases to be a qualified interest under IRC § 2702.  While the CCA is not precedent, it is a clear indication of how the IRS may deal with perceived abusive (valuation) transactions. A softer touch could have permitted use of the self-adjustment regulations to correct the transaction. Instead, the IRS uses a hammer to address, in our view, bad taxpayer behavior. To avoid costly disputes with the IRS, when funding a GRAT or any irrevocable trust with hard-to-value assets, obtain a qualified appraisal as of the date of the transfer.”

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The Washington Report: – Wealth Transfer Edition

“As Congress and the Biden administration continue to consider the grantor trust rules, some practitioners have turned their attention to the little-used nongrantor irrevocable life insurance trust (“ILIT”) as a planning alternative.  The ILIT, one of the most commonly used legacy management tools, is typically established as a grantor trust for income tax purposes for many reasons but the most important being the ability to use the trust income to pay life insurance premiums.  The nongrantor ILIT is possible but not ideal.  In most situations, the grantor ILIT will remain the preferred structure.  However, it is possible to structure the ILIT as a grantor trust from the outset and allow for a future toggling-off of grantor trust status to manage possible changes in the law.”

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The Washington Report: Business Uses Edition

“A rabbi trust is a vehicle that provides for such informal funding without running afoul of tax or ERISA compliance issues resulting from “funded” NQDC plan benefits. This article addresses key questions to consider when adopting a rabbi trust, including (i) whether the rabbi trust should be irrevocable; (ii) even if irrevocable, when can assets revert to the employer; (iii) should the rabbi trust include enhanced protections upon the employer’s change in control; (iv) what kind of investments should the rabbi trust hold and what kind of control over those investments should the employer retain; and (v) can the rabbi trust hold employer stock?”

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The Washington Report: – Wealth Transfer Edition

“With perceived threats to grantor trusts and increasing desire for flexibility, some practitioners gravitated to the “Family LLC” as an alternative to the conventional irrevocable life insurance trust (“ILIT”).  The Family LLC provides a flexible vehicle for legacy planning that is here to stay. When life insurance is owned by a Family LLC, there is a tradeoff between the flexibility afforded by the Family LLC and the risk of estate tax inclusion to the parent/insured. And given the upcoming Corporate Transparency Act, the Family LLC may also have more complexity than previously thought.”

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“Rising interest rates, degrading asset valuations, and future legislative uncertainty coupled with high wealth transfer tax exemptions mean it’s a great time to revisit installment sales and similar  transactions using grantor trusts.”

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“Life insurance continues to play a vital role in legacy planning because of its unique value proposition – a source of income tax efficient liquidity, efficient wealth transfer on a multi-generational basis, a mortality hedge, a non-correlated asset class, and strong internal rates of return relative to the current stock market. Nonetheless, advisors should evaluate how higher rates and a volatile market may impact the performance of both new and existing life insurance funding approaches.”

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“In legacy planning, the “clawback” refers to the additional estate taxes that could be triggered by lifetime gifts if the unified federal gift and estate tax exemption is less at the time of death than at the time of gift. If there is a lower exemption at death, without a special rule, the estate tax rules could recapture and tax the value of the gift that was originally sheltered from gift tax under a higher exemption. While final regulations issued in 2019 eliminated this clawback, the preamble to these final regulations acknowledged that the IRS needed to further consider whether gifts that they deem as not true inter vivos transfers should be excepted from this special rule.”

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“The IRS, clearly interested in intergenerational private split-dollar, attempted to secure a third victory. After Morrissette and Cahill, it looked like intergenerational split-dollar was trending the way of the dinosaurs. Then in Estate of Marion Levine, the Tax Court not only resurrected intergenerational split-dollar life insurance planning, but it also offered a roadmap for successfully structuring traditional private split-dollar plans as well.”

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