New York Trusts & Estates Law Blog » Basics

Article on Wills, Inheritance & Halacha in Community Magazine

Saul Elnadav — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:27:23 +0000

An article I wrote on yerusha (Jewish Laws of Inheritance) and halachic estate planning was published in the October 2009 issue of Community Magazine.

See The Top 10 Questions & Answers About Wills, Inheritance & Halacha. If you’re concerned about halacha, you should, at the very least, have a will.

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Estate planning basics

Saul Elnadav — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:29:18 +0000

A CNN Money/Fortune Magazine article published yesterday gives a basic overview of some estate planning fundamentals. See How to avoid the ‘death tax’ by Janet Morrissey, 6/4/09.

As we’ve mentioned, although the estate tax is set to expire at the end of 2009, Congress is expected to pass new legislation that will keep the estate tax rate at 45% with a $3.5 million exemption.

Morrissey’s article touches on gifts, life insurance, irrevocable trusts such as life insurance trusts and GRATs (grantor-retained annuity trusts), and using limited partnerships to reduce the value of assets for tax purposes. Although the article does not mention it, the Obama Administration recently proposed restricting the use of GRATs and valuation discounts going forward, so the time to take advantage may be now.

The article also stresses the importance of periodically reviewing your estate plan. Finances, relationships, and laws change over time, and an estate plan created ten years ago may no longer make sense.

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The free lunch seminar trap

Saul Elnadav — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:10:07 +0000

A recent Wall Street Journal article by Jennifer Levitz reported that financial scams targeting seniors are on the rise, and states are responding by increasing penalties on scammers.

Seizing on fear of stock-market turmoil, sales people and fraudsters are hawking investments that claim to be “low-risk,” or a supposedly safe way to invest in the stock market and earn back losses. In fact, the products may be complex and have significant downsides.

Special mention, at least in Arkansas, goes to free lunch seminars. The seminars are pitched to seniors as educational events with complimentary lunch, but are sometimes nothing more than sales opportunities for unethical brokers who misrepresent financial products and aggressively push products that are inappropriate for older people. The article contains a helpful list of questions you might want to ask before investing.

According to the article, Arkansas recently passed a law doubling the civil penalty for securities violation when the victim is 65 or older, and ten other states (I counted Michigan, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) have either recently passed, proposed, or are expected to introduce legislation aimed at financial scammers who target the elderly.

Read the full article here.

- A side note to subscribers of the blog’s feed and e-mail updates. The blog has been moved to a new web address, http://trustsestateslaw.com. It also has a new and improved design. Click over, take a look, and let me know what you think.

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Life insurance basics

Saul Elnadav — Sun, 03 May 2009 05:13:00 +0000

The New York Times published a basic article on life and disability insurance last week. See Life and Disability Insurance: What You Need to Know, Paul Sullivan, New York Times, April 28, 2009.

From the article:

Life insurance comes in a variety of forms meant to accomplish a range of objectives, from providing for survivors to moving assets out of your estate. The prices for it depend not only upon how much coverage you want but also upon what type of policy you get, either for a finite period of time or indefinitely.

Sullivan explains the basic differences between term life and whole life insurance, encourages consumers to check on the financial soundness of insurance companies, and provides links to other resources on purchasing insurance and selecting a broker.

Read the full article here.

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Common sense estate planning: Get Organized!

Saul Elnadav — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:10:00 +0000

If you need an incentive to organize your financial life, see The Mess They Left by Suzanne Barlyn, Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2009.

Excerpts from the article:

In the torrent of estate-planning advice out there, one simple but crucial bit of wisdom often gets overlooked: Keep your stuff in order.

Surviving family members can get overwhelmed when loved ones leave behind disorganized financial statements and cluttered homes. Heirs and executors must become de facto investigators, sorting through the junk to figure out where the assets are — and what should be done with them.

Read the rest of the article here.