Just When You Thought an Irrevocable Trust Couldn’t Be Changed: 5 Ways to Modify an Irrevocable Trust

Posted by Robert L. Arone – Irrevocable trusts shouldn’t be left to languish as the years go by. In this issue, we’ll show you why and how an old or out-of-date irrevocable trust can be modified to benefit you, your clients, their spouses, or other beneficiaries. And, of course, it’s all totally legal. How Trust Modifications Benefit Your Book of Business Understanding why and how an old and stale trust can be modernized will benefit your clients and probably also your business because: ● Tax-related complexities of outdated or poorly worded irrevocable trusts—such as high tax rates on capital gains or undistributed income in such trusts, or the forfeited opportunity for a step-up in basis at a second death—may now be at odds with your clients’ goals and circumstances. An up-to-date trust can take advantage of opportunities to save taxes. ● Old trusts may limit your ability to wisely manage

Revocable Trusts Are The Solution to Your Client’s Needs

Posted by Robert L. Arone – Find Out What a Trust Can Do That a Will Can’t A revocable trust-centered estate plan offers many benefits a plain old last will and testament can’t. Trust-centered plans are better for clients and make your work easier. Understanding the benefits of trust-centered planning will position you as the trusted advisor who can spot the issues and implement solutions. How Your Practice Will Benefit When Your Clients Use Revocable Trusts You can retain assets under management: Assets will be kept private so your competitors and other predators don’t know who inherited what and how to contact them. Avoiding probate often reduces settlement costs significantly, leaving more assets for beneficiaries and for continued management. Assets held in trust can be protected against dissipation from lawsuits, divorces, bad decisions, and addictions, and these assets need continued management.

How You Can Protect Inherited IRAs

Posted by Robert L. Arone – The United States Supreme Court has determined that inherited IRAs are not protected from bankruptcy creditors. Although this development presents a serious risk for clients, it also presents a planning opportunity for financial advisors. How Protecting Inherited IRAs Benefits Financial Advisors If a retirement account is seized in a lawsuit, spent down on frivolities, or wrangled from a beneficiary by a predator, those assets leave your management. On the other hand, if assets remain protected in trust, they remain under your management for a lifetime. The change in law also provides a legitimate reason to contact your clients, review assets, and determine whether there are retirement accounts not yet under your management. And, when you spot a vulnerability, you provide more value and increase your clients’ confidence in your relationship. The Standalone Retirement Trust is the solution because in the absence of any creditor

How to Help Your Clients Avoid Probate

Posted by Robert L. Arone – Your clients likely set up a living trust with the goal of avoiding probate. When properly prepared and funded, a trust based estate plan will avoid the public, costly, and time-consuming probate court process. Shockingly, many people still make a big mistake, catapulting their assets and loved ones right into the oft dreaded probate court system. That mistake? They fail to fund their trust. How Do Financial Advisors Benefit from Helping Clients Fund Their Trusts? Collaborating with clients and their estate planning attorneys in the funding process will benefit both you and your clients: You will likely discover assets not yet under management that the client can consolidate with your firm – prior employer 401ks, scattered IRAs or investment accounts, or individual stocks or savings bonds that can be cashed in and invested. You will likely find product opportunities – life insurance needs (new

Is There an Income Tax Time Bomb Lurking in Your Client’s Estate Plan?

Posted by Robert L. Arone – As the federal estate tax exemption has ballooned from $1.5 million ten years ago to $5.43 million today, the need for estate tax planning has drastically decreased. Instead, higher income tax rates that were ushered in under the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) have shifted the focus of estate planning to a new frontier: income tax basis planning. In this issue you will learn what income tax basis is, how older estate plans have been deliberately designed to include an income tax time bomb, and the options your clients have to update their plans so that their heirs will receive the maximum basis. The Basics of Income Tax Basis In its simplest form, income tax basis is the cost to buy an asset, which includes the purchase price plus costs and transfer fees. Basis must be tracked because when an asset is

Wealth Counselor

Just When You Thought an Irrevocable Trust Couldn’t Be Changed: 5 Ways to Modify an Irrevocable Trust

Revocable Trusts Are The Solution to Your Client’s Needs

How You Can Protect Inherited IRAs

How to Help Your Clients Avoid Probate

Is There an Income Tax Time Bomb Lurking in Your Client’s Estate Plan?

How Can We Help?

© 2024 by Orsi Arone Rothenberg Turner, LLP. All rights reserved.

Attorney Marketing by Bardorf Legal Marketing

Have A Question?

Wealth Counselor

Just When You Thought an Irrevocable Trust Couldn’t Be Changed: 5 Ways to Modify an Irrevocable Trust

Revocable Trusts Are The Solution to Your Client’s Needs

How You Can Protect Inherited IRAs

How to Help Your Clients Avoid Probate

Is There an Income Tax Time Bomb Lurking in Your Client’s Estate Plan?

Tags

How Can We Help?

© 2024 by Orsi Arone Rothenberg Turner, LLP. All rights reserved.

Attorney Marketing by Bardorf Legal Marketing

Have A Question?