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Estate planning includes decisions about the individuals or charities who will receive gifts, bequests, or inheritance from an estate. This instruction from an estate to someone is assumed to be accepted unless it is refused by the intended beneficiary. This refusal is called a disclaimer. As they relate to estates, a disclaimer is a voluntary …

When a trust or an estate produces taxable income such as interest, dividends, rental income, royalties, etc., beneficiaries may be concerned with how the resulting income tax will affect their personal financial situation. Whether the trust/estate or individual beneficiaries (or both) are liable for the income tax burden depends on the governing document (trust agreement/will), …

Prior to the Secure Act and Secure Act 2.0, beneficiaries of IRAs generally had the option to use the IRS uniform lifetime table to calculate and withdraw RMDs over their lifetime.  With the passing of the Secure Acts, there have been modifications to inherited IRAs and the required minimum distributions to go along with them. …

Community property essentially means that all assets and debt acquired during a marriage, even if acquired by one spouse, are considered marital property, and owned equally between spouses. However, there are some exceptions, property owned by one spouse before marriage or received as a gift, by will, or inherited by one spouse, after marriage, will …

What is a Qualified Terminable Interest Property (QTIP) Trust? A QTIP trust can be created during life or upon death of a grantor (creator of the trust) with the intent to provide for their spouse, or surviving spouse, but also to maintain control of how the trust’s assets are distributed after the surviving spouse’s death. …

What is the Generation-Skipping Transfer (GST) tax?The GST tax is one of three separate transfer taxes, along with estate and gift taxes, each with their own rules and regulations. What triggers the GST tax?There are three types of generation-skipping transfers that will trigger the GST tax. Direct Skip – transfers directly to a skip person …