A married couple has special planning challenges if one spouse is not a citizen of the United States. Federal estate tax law requires that a spouse be a U.S. citizen in order to qualify for the unlimited marital deduction. The primary reason for this law is that the IRS does not want a surviving non-citizen…
Last week, the IRS announced it will recognize same sex marriages for all federal tax purposes, regardless of where the couple lives (or dies). In other words, if a gay or lesbian couple is legally married and move to or returns to a state that does not recognize same sex marriage, they will still be…
Trustees are those individuals (family members, attorney, or CPA for example) or entities (such as a bank trust department) named in a trust agreement to administer the trust. Trustees are required to manage and invest trust property and to distribute the trust property to certain individuals (the beneficiaries) based upon the instructions contained in the…