by paullawblog | Apr 26, 2015 | Estate Planning
One of the most common questions in estate planning is: “What happens if you die without a will?” An individual who dies without a will is said to die intestate. A person who dies intestate will have his or her estate distributed according to Missouri’s...
by paullawblog | Apr 19, 2015 | Estate Planning
At its most basic, estate planning is preparing for the end of life. It is a difficult, but necessary topic. Estate planning typically involves creating a comprehensive plan that accounts for the following issues. Property Creating a plan to distribute property is the...
by paullawblog | Apr 12, 2015 | Estate Planning
A Crummey trust, also known as an irrevocable gift trust (“IGT”), is a type of irrevocable trust. A Crummey trust is designed to help reduce estate tax liability by utilizing an individual’s annual gift tax exemption. However, a Crummey trust, like most irrevocable...
by paullawblog | Apr 5, 2015 | Estate Planning
The estate tax, or “death tax,” is a hot topic in estate planning. However, today, the estate tax does not impact most people. For much of history, the estate tax had a relatively low exemption and a high top tax rate. For instance, from 1942 to 1976, the exemption...
by paullawblog | Mar 29, 2015 | Estate Planning
Missouri Asset Protection (“MAP”) trusts are a type of irrevocable trust. As the name suggests, a MAP trust is designed for asset protection. In sum, a MAP trust, like most irrevocable trusts, requires a settlor to sacrifice control in exchange for asset protection....
