Estate Planning

A grantor trust is a trust in which the grantor, sometimes called a settlor or trustor, retains an interest. One particular type of grantor trust, called an intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT), leverages disparities in the federal income and estate taxes to provide opportunities for tax, Medicaid, and asset protection planning.

“Long-term care” describes the group of services that help people with who cannot care for themselves for long periods of time.

Late last night, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill, passed by the U.S. Senate on December 31, 2012, that will become the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 ("ATRA"). President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law today.

As the end of 2012 approaches and the bus appears headed off the “fiscal cliff,” one estate planning strategy seems to be taking center stage among more affluent taxpayers.

The much-discussed “fiscal cliff” facing the United States is the result of federal tax and spending policy changes that will become effective January 1, 2013, caused largely by the following: 1) the expiring “Bush tax cuts,” 2) the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often called “Obamacare”), and 3) the Budget Control Act (passed in 2011 to increase the debt ceiling).

The United States can hold parties to asset transfers, both transferors and transferees, personally liable for outstanding debts owed to the United States by a debtor.

In July 2011, Arizona’s Legislature enacted, and Governor Brewer signed, the current version of A.R.S. § 28-2055(B). This statute provides that a person (called a grantor) can designate a beneficiary to whom ownership of a motor vehicle will be transferred upon the death of the grantor via a beneficiary deed.

Arizona life insurance beneficiaries who are deemed to have “insurable interests” in the lives of another, other than those effecting the insurance or their legal representatives, are “entitled to [life insurance] proceeds against the creditors and representatives of the person effecting the insurance.

A qualified personal residence trust, or QPRT, can reduce the federal estate tax associated with transferring property to heirs, reduce the federal gift tax associated with such transfer, and, provide asset protection.