We have all seen it. The media likes to pass along juicy stories of actors that either had no wills or their heirs are fighting tooth and nail over the inheritance. But how do we stop any infighting among our own beneficiaries when we pass? Most families get along great… Read More
Is My Children’s Inheritance Taxed?
The general answer is no. The IRS doesn’t allow much to go untaxed, but most inherited assets are the exception (in Arizona at least). It does not matter whether the beneficiary received real property, stock or cash. Nor whether he or she received the inheritance via a Will or a… Read More
Large Personal Injury Settlements
As many of you know, we handle important personal injury cases that frequently have large settlements for the clients. Being an estate planning and estate administration firm helps those that receive these settlements in several ways. Let me briefly touch on a few matters faced by these clients upon receipt… Read More
Now What? The problem with having an A/B trust
Nothing is worse than having your estate planning attorney advise you one way then change their mind the next. Well, we are doing it again. Before when the estate tax applied to many more people, it was important to create an A/B trust. Essentially this meant that a married couples’… Read More
Taxes on Inheritance
I have addressed this in prior blog posts but it bears revisiting this topic since this comes up frequently in my meetings with clients. The question is typically asked this way: “Will my heirs have to pay taxes on the inheritance I leave them?” or something similar. Let me start… Read More
Business Succession Planning
Business succession planning is the process through which new owners are identified to replace the current owners when they leave, retire or pass away. New owners often include internal people, either employees or family members, to fill the important positions in the company. Transferring A Business To Heirs A revocable… Read More
Is My Estate Taxable When I Die?
This is a pretty common question. I think there is a lot of misconceptions that an inheritance is taxable. For the most part it is not. Arizona doesn’t have an inheritance or death tax. There is a federal estate and gift tax but unless your estate exceeds 11 million dollars… Read More
Digital Assets Part Of An Estate Plan
Recently Arizona passed a law that greatly increases individuals’ ability to control what happens to their digital assets after they die. This has been passed in many states but in Arizona it can be found in Arizona Revised Statutes §14-131111, 14-131112 and 14-131113. We can’t tell you how many times the… Read More
“I don’t need an estate plan since I’m unaffected by the estate tax”
While this is a common misconception, I believe it mixes up two ideas, estate planning and estate tax planning. Estate tax planing is actually a small, but important, part of the overall estate planning process. Estate planning is about making sure your estate is in order and passes as you… Read More