Kentucky Estates: articles on asset protection planning and issues
Many of my clients own second homes at the beach, or the lake. Less frequently, clients own large properties (often farms) that have deep family and historic significance. In either instance, clients often want to keep these vacation or farm properties “in the family.” Unfortunately, there are many instances in which these good intentions work […]
Certainly one of Adam Smith’s core insights in The Wealth of Nations was that incentives matter. I believe examples are everywhere about how Smith was correct – ranging from California water shortages and student loan debt, to tax policy and white collar crime. If incentives matter in these areas, shouldn’t they matter in designing trusts that maximize successful outcomes for […]
These are interesting years in estate planning for families in the Upper Middle and Lower Upper Classes. As a high estate tax exemption has reduced the tax-driven imperatives for using trusts to hold inheritances, non-tax applications of trusts come to the fore. As non-tax issues in trust design assume greater relative importance, what factors should […]
Many clients I work with have done a little bit of research about estate administration before we meet. Often, they are surprisingly focused on “avoiding probate.” This is such a common part of the client mind map that I think it’s worth examining myths and realities of avoiding probate in Kentucky. Myth: Probate is expensive, so […]
Last week, Business First of Louisville published a report and slideshow on the top 25 largest residential real estate transactions of the first quarter of 2015 in Jefferson County. It might surprise you to know that a home bought for $646,000 was pricey enough to make the first quarter slideshow. The most expensive home on […]
Noncompetition agreements are a common fact of life for many of the mid- and senior-level executives I represent in estate planning, and for business owner clients with employees. Because noncompetes are such important features of the life cycle estate and financial planning landscape, I sat down with my colleague Rebecca Weis to learn more about […]
In my practice, I have found that a majority of my clients who create significant wealth do so through ownership of a private business or a concentrated stock position in a publicly traded company. What that means for you is that if you haven’t yet started a business or taken an ownership position in one, […]
Whether or not to get a prenuptial agreement before getting married isn’t an easy decision. The advisability of a prenup turns in large part on whether the default law that will govern the marriage if it ends by death or divorce is agreeable. If you can live with the default rules, a prenup might not […]
It’s wintertime, when one can’t help but think about Florida’s many advantages as a retirement haven compared to northern states. In addition to no state income taxes and better weather, a lesser-known but important Florida feature is its homestead laws. “Homestead” presents deceptively complex issues in snowbirds’ estate and tax planning when they finally become […]
In 2010, KYEstates provided coverage here, here, and here regarding creditor protection for inherited IRAs. At that time there was no clear consensus on the degree of protection these accounts enjoyed. Earlier this year, in Clark v. Rameker, 573 U.S. ___ (2014), the Supreme Court resolved a circuit split and delivered bad news for debtors, finding […]
If you are a KYEstates reader in a state where it’s cold in the winter, you have probably seen them: people who seem to live in your own neighborhood and golf at your club, but have a car with a Florida license plate. Who are those people? They’re the lucky ones: the Snowbirds who get a […]
The popular financial press is pretty crowded, just like the blogosphere. Yet every once in a while, an article says something pretty simple that’s also really important, something that connects strongly with issues we see time and again in our practice. Last week, Howard Gold published that sort of piece on Marketwatch.com: “The biggest retirement […]