Estate Tax Planning
The trends in estate taxes do not look promising. In particular states like New Jersey and New York have been lowering their threshold for estate taxation. Proper planning is essential to minimize your estate taxes and see that your children have financial success. We work in tandem with estate attorneys and your spouses and children to try to maximize your overall tax savings.
IRAs and Retirement Plans
The rules for IRAs and retirement plans are more complex than most people realize. We can help you prioritize when you take a distribution from what account. We can help you plan an inheritance strategy for your traditional or Roth IRA. Making your IRA’s work for you is one of our top priorities.
Gifting Strategies
With effective lifetime giving strategies, you can minimize your taxes and increase what you give to your children. Under current IRS rules, a husband and wife are each allowed to transfer $12,000 per year to individuals of their choice. In addition, there are techniques to give much more. These include family limited partnership or LLC vehicles, GRATs, low-interest loans and installment sales, QPRTs, and private annuities. We can help you design a plan that works best for your current income needs and the long term needs of your family and helps reduce your estate tax burden.
Charitable Giving
We believe in charitable giving and it is a smart strategy. There are several tax strategies for charitable giving that you should consider.
- Charitable Gift Fund – We regularly recommend that you consider a Charitable Gift Fund account at either Fidelity Investments or your local Community Foundation. These allow you to manage the timing of your charitable gifts for tax purposes. You make your gift when it is best for you. You can request distributions to your charity of choice whenever you choose.
- Donate Appreciated Securities – You get a deduction for the full amount without having to pay capital gains taxes.
- Charitable Annuities - Can be a good choice for lifetime income for you or your children. These are useful for handicapped children situations or immaturity issues.
|
