Stites On Estates
Estate, Trust, and Tax Planning
Give From the Heart and the Head with a Charitable Remainder Trust
The holidays always put me in the mood for giving, and I hope to continue that charitable spirit into the New Year with this post on charitable remainder trusts (CRTs).Almost everybody knows that they can...
Adapt an Irrevocable Trust to a New Family Situation With Decanting
It's not uncommon for an old irrevocable trust to no longer fit a family's circumstances, for the simple reason that Yogi Berra was right when he noted that "It's hard to make predictions, especially about...
Homestead Planning for Your Florida Property
Florida offers many advantages as a retirement haven compared to northern states (including no state income taxes and better weather). Another Florida feature (lesser-known but still quite important) is its homestead laws."Homestead" can be a...
Supreme Court Denies Creditor Protection for Inherited IRAs
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 that a debtor's inherited IRA was includible in her bankruptcy...
Reasons You Might Need a Will Even When You're Young
Youth. A time when the average person might say (as Ferris Bueller did 28 years ago): "I don't believe in isms. I believe in Me."Usually putting things off works out, but if a young person...
Trust Planning for Sons and Daughters-in-Law
Even in an era of relatively high estate tax exemptions, we 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...
Florida Residency Planning for Kentuckians
If you are a Stites on Estates 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...
Using a Funded Revocable Trust for Wealth Preservation in Old Age
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...