Estate Planning With Real Estate: Special Issues & Potential Pitfalls
Click here to read about issues that can arise when estate planning involves real estate.
Gift Tax Annual Exclusion To Remain at $13,000 in 2010
The IRS recently announced in Revenue Procedure 2009-50 that the gift tax annual exclusion amount available to taxpayers in 2010 will remain unchanged at $13,000. The Tax Reform Act of 1997 tied the then $10,000 gift tax annual exclusion to cost of living adjustments based on increases in the Consumer Price Index. As a result, since 1998, the annual exclusion has increased from $10,000 to $13,000. The annual exclusion permits a taxpayer to gift $13,000 annually to any beneficiary without being required to use his or her $1 million lifetime gift exemption amount.
Attractive Rates For GRATs Remain In Place For October
The IRS has released the AFR interest rate for October, reducing the September AFR rate from 3.4% to 3.2%. While this is above the historically low 2% AFR rate in February, it still represents a very low interest rate, making GRATs a very attractive estate planning device to transfer significant wealth to your family members gift and estate tax free. In this environment where there are some proposals in Congress designed to curtail the use of GRATs, it again highlights that now is the time to seriously consider implementing a GRAT if you have a large taxable estate.
Swine Flu Preparation: Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives for College Students
With school in full swing and parents of college-age children becoming empty-nesters again, one important estate planning question comes to mind: can you as a parent get medical information about your college-age child in the event of an emergency? This concern is especially relevant this year as concerns about swine flu (H1N1 virus) are widespread.
Once a child turns 18, parents generally no longer have legal authority over their child’s financial or medical decisions, even though high-school and college-age children usually are still dependent on their parents.
Moreover, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) imposes high standards of patient privacy on hospitals, physicians and other health care providers. Because of this, many medical providers will not provide any medical information to anyone without the authority of the patient.
One solution is for parents to ask their college-age children to sign a power of attorney and health care directive. These routinely prepared estate planning documents authorize the parents to obtain medical information and make medical and financial decisions for a child if the child is unable to make such decisions for himself or herself. By keeping copies (or, better yet, electronic copies) of these documents readily available, parents will be better prepared to respond in case of an emergency involving the child.
September AFR Rate Released
The IRS has issued the Applicable Federal Rate (“AFR”) for September, keeping the AFR rate under Code §7520 unchanged from August at 3.4%. What this means is that GRATs are still very attractive estate planning devices for taxpayers. The AFR rate is the interest rate the IRS requires taxpayers to apply to the amount gifted to the GRAT to value the gift at zero. If the gifted assets appreciate at an amount greater than 3.4%, then notwithstanding any valuation discounts attributable to the gifted assets, the appreciation in excess of 3.4% would pass gift tax-free to the GRAT’s beneficiaries. Thus, the lower the AFR rate, the more attractive GRATs are to taxpayers.
In light of proposed legislation in Congress requiring only long term GRATs and limiting valuation discounts, now may be the time to implement a GRAT.
What Happens to Your E-mail and Digital Information If You Die?
As online account management becomes more pervasive in our society, and in turn, paper records become obsolete, it is important to consider keeping in a safe place a record of all of your accounts and the attendant identification numbers/codes and passwords so that if something catastrophic occurs, your family members and/or trusted representatives have the ability to access your accounts and information without too much difficulty.
For example, when someone passes away, an estate is created and one of the primary responsibilities of the executor is to inventory the assets of the estate. Prior to this digital age, that typically involved monitoring the mail to review statements of accounts that arrived each month. Online statements have replaced paper statements, and without access to email accounts or direct access to financial institutions, these accounts could be overlooked. If someone becomes disabled, and is unable to communicate his password protected information, it could be unduly burdensome to unlock this critical information.
You should consider (1) checking your Internet service provider’s privacy policy following a death, (2) making sure a trusted family member or representative has access to this protected information to identify and access these accounts, (3) backing up digital records regularly, especially if they have monetary value and (4) providing special instructions to family members or in estate planning documents as to the treatment of your digital property.
2009 Estate Tax Legislation
2009 has been an interesting year for estate planners. The arrival of 2009 brought an increase in the applicable exclusion amount to $3.5 million (from $2 million in 2008), meaning taxpayers with proper planning could shield this amount from the imposition of federal estate taxes. 2009 also brought the scheduled estate tax repeal for a one year period beginning on January 1, 2010 that much closer.
Notwithstanding the fact that we are now less than seven months away from a temporary estate tax repeal, there is a prevailing belief among estate planners that Congress will change the law before 2010 preserving some form of the estate tax, especially in light of the economic meltdown and the federal deficit.
In fact, numerous bills have already been introduced in Congress detailing estate tax parameters for 2010 and beyond. With respect to the applicable exclusion amount, three separate House bills have been introduced with exclusion amounts equal to $2 million, $3.5 million and $5 million, respectively.
For the most part, the estate tax rates in these bills are set at the current 45% estate tax rate, and some impose surtaxes on estates in excess of $10 to $25 million.
Other important items are addressed in these bills as well. For example, there is a mention of unifying the gift and estate exemptions, meaning if this were part of the new law (we believe unlikely at this point), the $1 million lifetime gift exclusion amount would be increased to equal the estate tax exclusion amount. This certainly would expand the ability of a taxpayer to implement more lifetime transfer planning.
Some of the bills include the concept of making the estate tax exclusion portable for couples, meaning for example if a husband does not utilize his full exclusion, his wife could utilize not only her exclusion, but his as well.
Finally, there is language in one bill which would restrict the use of valuation discounts typically applied to the ownership of closely held non-business family entities. These discounts are an integral part in transferring wealth to the next generation.
We will be keeping a close eye on estate tax legislation throughout the year and will report to you the new estate tax law as soon as it is passed.
Intra-Family Loans Offer Estate Planning Opportunities
Intra-family loans offer a conservative way of using interest rate arbitrage to achieve guaranteed estate tax benefits. The technique can be a powerful tool in today’s uncertain economic climate.
Intra-family loans take advantage of the spread between IRS prescribed interest rates and the interest rates available in the capital markets. For example, in July 2009, the “applicable federal rate” prescribed by the IRS for a three year note is 0.82% and a jumbo CD can be found with an interest rate of 4%.
Consider this example: Client creates a new irrevocable, generation-skipping tax exempt grantor trust for the benefit of his family. He makes a gift of $1 million and then loans the trust $9 million in exchange for a three year promissory note bearing interest at the applicable federal rate of 0.82%. The trust takes the $10 million and simply invests it in a jumbo CD as described above. The trust will receive interest income of $400,000 per year and have to pay out $82,000 per year in interest on the promissory note, a net gain of $318,000 per year, which accrues to the trust income, gift and estate tax-free. In three years, the trust will have accumulated $954,000 on a tax-free basis. At that time, the trust can repay (or refinance) the note.
The market downturn of 2008-2009 has wreaked havoc with many estate plans as transferred assets have lost value or failed to meet investment expectations. Intra-family loans are a conservative method for achieving estate tax benefits in today’s economy. Readers who are interested in intra-family loans should contact their tax attorney.
Divorce Automatically Revokes Ex-Spouse as Beneficiary of Life Insurance Policy
Earlier this month, the New Jersey Appellate Division, in Hadfield v. Lillo, held that a decedent’s ex-spouse was not entitled to the proceeds of a life insurance policy where the decedent, after obtaining a divorce, failed to change the beneficiary designation of a life insurance policy on his life. This case represents a fairly straightforward interpretation of New Jersey’s “revocation on divorce” statute.
NJSA 3B:3-14, amended in 2005, provides that a divorce revokes any revocable dispositions made by a divorced individual to his or her former spouse in a governing instrument (which includes a life insurance policy), except as otherwise expressly provided. Prior to the amendment, the statute simply provided that if after executing a will the testator divorces, the divorce revokes any dispositions of property to the ex-spouse under the decedent’s will only.
The decedent in Hadfield was divorced prior to and died after the 2005 amendment. The ex-spouse argued that the amended version of the statute should not apply because it was not in effect at the time of the divorce. The court rejected this argument and retroactively applied the amended statute after reasoning the ex-spouse had no vested right in the insurance since the decedent could have changed the beneficiary designation at any time.
The law is similar in New York. Under NYEPTL 5-1.4, a divorce revokes the former spouse’s rights not only under a will but also by beneficiary designation of an insurance policy. The statute, by way of recent amendment, specifically references the beneficiary designation of a life insurance policy.
A shortcoming to the statutes is that life insurance frequently is owned by a spouse’s irrevocable insurance trust and the irrevocable trust is designated as the beneficiary. The statutes highlighted above deal with the revocation of revocable dispositions made by a divorced individual. As a result, absent specific language in an irrevocable trust to the contrary, a divorce will not revoke the designation of the irrevocable trust as the beneficiary and will not terminate an ex-spouse’s rights under the trust. It is also important to note that the state level revocation upon divorce statutes do not apply to ERISA governed retirement plans, such as IRAs, 401(k)’s and other employer-provided plans, a rule which adds confusion to this area.
A life changing event such as a divorce should always result in an extensive review of one’s estate plan.
