Adult Adoption is Some Very Happy Estate Planning
A few months ago I was able to do something a little different for an Elder Law attorney. I got to put through an Adult Adoption of an individual who essentially was a “child” to a couple but was not officially so. Doing this had some very strong upside for the couple’s estate planning in light of New Jersey’s Inheritance...
Great Reasons to Update your Will Once in a While
The years really fly by. I can’t tell you how many times some one has come in to meet with me who signed a Will 25 years before and never updated it. When major changes occur in your life, it’s important to see your lawyer for a “check up” to make sure that your old Plan is still a good Plan for you. Here are samples of situations I have encountered, which required an...
Watch out for Transfer Inheritance Tax when you do your estate planning
Most of the publicity in the news concerning changes to New Jersey’s “death tax” has focused on its raising of the estate tax thresholds. Now, if a person dies and has less than two million dollars in his or her estate, there will be no estate tax regardless of who is receiving that bounty. Not so for the Transfer Inheritance tax, which is based on the relationship of the...
NJ Tax Court again confirms – inheritance tax is based on what the Will said
Transfer Inheritance Tax must be paid in NJ when wealth is transferred at death to certain categories of recipients. There is no tax on transfer to charities or to “Class A” beneficiaries – these are spouses, lineal descendants and lineal ancestors as well as step children. However there is a tax of 11% on everything above $25,000 per person that passes to a sibling of the...
NJ Tax Court confirms necessity to follow procedures to get tax benefits under Domestic Partnership Act
On May 28, 2014 the NJ tax Court decided the case of Claudette Lugano v NJ Division of Taxation.http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nj-tax-court/1668800.html . Ms. Lugano and the decedent, Mr. Lovi, had neither married nor registered as domestic partners, and inheritance tax was imposed on her receipt of his retirement plan benefits upon his death. The Court held, among other things, that the failure...