Kentucky Estates: articles on insurance planning and risk management
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 […]
When people in their 30s and 40s think about their earning trajectory through a normal retirement age, they should take into account the tendency for income growth to taper after age 40 in many fields, and the risks of unplanned early retirement, caused by health problems, corporate downsizing, or otherwise. Job loss after age 40 […]
Estate administration can be a frustrating experience for families and their advisors, because it’s an occasion when families fight. Sometimes the fights are necessary, and unavoidable. Many other times, to a detached observer, the fights seem silly. Whether justified (or not), whether necessary (or not), conflict makes estate administration cost more (even when litigation doesn’t […]
Several months ago I read Cut Adrift: Families in Insecure Times by Marianne Cooper, a Stanford sociologist. Cooper’s chapters on the extremely professionally successful upper middle class and their project of “doing security” were particularly interesting. These families were operating an increasingly unstable career and social environment, and devoted tremendous energy to enhancing their own financial security. […]
I believe effective life cycle estate and financial planning is anchored in the Quadrant of Facts, Forecasts, Life Stages, and Unexpected Events. Over the past several weeks, ten posts covered a lot of territory about Facts and Forecasts. This is a pivot point at which we begin exploring planning issues in the first of several Life […]
Even in an era of relatively high estate tax exemptions, I work with many families who want to use a trust to provide for the management of a child’s inheritance. How a son in law or daughter in law should be treated in a parent’s estate plan, though, is a more subtle issue that families […]
A decade ago, when the estate tax exemption was much lower, the irrevocable life insurance trust (or “ILIT”) was a component of many (or even most) tax-aware estate plans. It was common for physicians, attorneys, architects, engineers, and corporate executives to have insurance trusts, without necessarily knowing why that was so. Reassured by their attorneys […]
For retired persons or couples with less than $1.5 million to $2 million in wealth, potential long term care costs are one of the greatest risks they face. Long term care costs can deplete parents’ assets, and also substantially reduce the eventual inheritances of adult children. Let’s consider these issues with a case study featuring […]
Although normal activity in much of Louisville seems to be temporarily suspended this weekend due to one of the most impressive logistical enterprises since the Berlin Airlift, the children’s swimming City Meet, the T&E Community still needs tax updates, and KYEstates is happy to share this report on Matthies v. Comm’r, 134 T.C. No. 6 (Feb. 22, 2010). In Matthies, […]