From the New York Times, “The High Stakes of Low Quality” by Yvon Chouinard, founder and former owner of Patagonia at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/patagonia-environnment-fast-fashion.html

• “I know firsthand the high stakes of low quality. When I started forging climbing equipment and selling it out of the back of my car in the 1950s, I was my own best customer. My dirtbag climber buddies and I wanted stronger pitons and sturdier carabiners to support us as we hung thousands of feet above the Yosemite Valley floor. If the metal were too soft or a joint too weak, the resulting fall would have killed me or one of my friends.  I wanted to stay alive, so I chose quality at every turn, creating products that were simple, versatile and made with the lightest, strongest materials I could find.”
• “People ask me how it has managed to stick around so long when the average life span of a corporation is less than 20 years. I tell them it’s been our unrelenting focus on quality, which includes making things that last and that cause the least amount of harm to our planet.” Quality is smart business. Even during economic downturns, people don’t stop spending. In our experience, instead of wanting more, they value better. Consumers should demand — and companies should deliver — products that are more durable, multifunctional and, crucially, socially and environmentally responsible.”

How does this relate to your practice and the clients you serve?  Do you believe that it’s better to do excellent planning and provide flawless implementation upfront, rather than to try to unwind poor planning and flawed implementation down the road?  The cost for working with the cheapest, least experienced, and perhaps, ethically-challenged professional can be prohibitively and dangerously high.

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.”

Click here to read the full report.

What You Know:  We Just Dodged the Defective Grantor Trust Bullet (or did we?)

What You May Not Know:  It Is Still Important to Consider Hedging Re-Introduction of DGT Provisions

Please click here to see three planning/drafting scenarios to consider.

“SLATs are a powerful estate planning tool for couples who would be resistant to transfer a significant amount of assets to their children, thus losing all access to those funds.”

An interesting and readable article by Daniel F. Rahill, CPA, JD, LL.M., CGMA

To read the full article, click here.

“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.

 WR marketplace 

“As the 2020 presidential election approaches, uncertainty continues regarding the potential for tax legislation and changing market conditions, causing many to consider using current transfer tax exemptions with gifts before year-end.  Individuals planning to transfer hard-to-value assets may wish to consider using a gift agreement with a defined value clause to shield against unwanted gift tax consequences.”

To read the full report, click here.

“The purchase of life insurance products and their implementation into a client’s broader legacy planning strategy requires clients to navigate through a complex web of financial and cashflow management strategies, transfer tax considerations, and tax reporting obligations that must be approached differently on a client by client basis.  Failure on the part of advisors to work together can result in avoidable planning gaps, most notably: (1) inability to fund premium payments on a sustainable basis; (2) inefficient use of lifetime estate, gift and GST tax exemption; and (3) poor product maintenance leading to negative outcomes.”

To read the full report, click here.

“As 2020 approaches, year-end planning considerations for clients include: 
(1) making use of temporarily higher transfer tax exemptions; (2) managing market gains in 2019; (3) planning to take advantage of continued low interest rates; (4) closing life insurance transactions; and (5) monitoring developments in generational split-dollar.”  

To read the full report, click here.

“Typically, after divorce, individuals no longer want their former spouses to receive life insurance death benefits. In many cases, the terms of the policy and/or applicable state laws will automatically revoke the designation of a former spouse as a life insurance beneficiary, but this is not always the case.” 

To read the full report, click here.

“Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ~  Albert Einstein