Qualified Tuition Programs (so-called “529 Plans”) and increasingly part of my estate planning conversations with clients. The key income tax benefit of a 529 Plan is that assets contributed to plan grow income tax free. So long as the assets are distributed for “qualified educational expenses,” distributions are tax free. Previously, advisors rightfully cautioned against […]
Back in 2017, Governor Mark Dayton signed a Minnesota tax bill into law that, among other items, specifies the Minnesota estate tax rate and estate tax exemption amounts. Minnesota residents with significant assets should be aware of these exemption amounts and why so-called “Credit Shelter Trust” planning (also known as A/B Planning or “Credit Shelter […]
Certain types of jointly-owned (co-owned) assets automatically pass to the surviving co-owner at death as a “right of survivorship.” For example, most of my married clients purchased their residence as “joint tenants with right of survivorship.” As a legal attribute of this kind of ownership, the ownership on the property is automatically transferred to the […]
Many of our married clients have children that are not the children of both the husband and wife. Knowing many of these families personally, I know the joy that the parents have in treating both their own children, as well as their step-children, as equal members of the household. While many of our married clients […]