Articles For Professionals

Repeal of Estate Tax May Warrant a Fresh Look At the Use of Disclaimers To Avoid Death Tax

The end of the estate tax during 2010 might only be a temporary reprieve. As the law now stands, for persons dying in 2011 estates valued above $1,000,000 will be subject to estate tax at very hefty rates rising as high as 55%. This circumstance suddenly creates the real possibility that estates valued at greater than $1,000,000 will later create estate tax problems for "downstream beneficiaries". That’s the bad news. But, the good news is that there may be an estate planning technique to mini... (Read More)

Protecting Marital Assets From Recovery: Using the "SPA" To Solve A Tax Problem For The Non-Citizen Spouse

By, Gene L. Osofsky, Esq., CFLS, Hayward, CA.    Published By California Advocates For Nursing Home Reform, "Legal Network News" , Volume 20, No. 3, Fall, 2009, (Reprinted Here With Permission)  When planning to avoid Medi-Cal recovery against marital assets where one spouse is in a Skilled Nursing Facility and receiving a Medi-Cal subsidy, a common technique is to consider a lifetime transfer of the SNF Spouse’s ownership interest to the At-Home Spouse. The usual assumption is that the... (Read More)