Estate Planning as a Career

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs) are planning tools used to keep life insurance proceeds outside of the taxable estate.

For example, if a married couple has an estate of 6 million, they can pass 4 million to the next generation with no tax if they set up the proper trust arrangement to take advantage of the maximum lifetime unified credits. That leaves 2 million still subject to tax under the current law.

The logical thing to do is to purchase a survivorshi (more…)

If youd hit her in the passenger door, you probably would have killed her, the officer told me as I looked over the crumpled front of my mini-van. I was a bit shaken, but relieved. It could have been so much worse, especially for Marge.

That February day began like any other day for Marge, an elderly lady who was just driving a few blocks from her home to the local mall. She probably had her mind on the things she wanted to purchase and didnt realize she had turned across (more…)

The history of real estate tax and property tax can be traced back to Colonial America. Land was taxed on a per-acre basis until the nineteenth century when uniformity clauses were adopted to help protect settlers. The uniformity clauses now require that property be taxed according to its value.

Illinois was the first state to adopt this clause, and some states such as Tennessee adopted additional provisions that exempted products produced from the soil and up to one thou (more…)