Grantor and Non-Grantor Trusts: Some Thoughts About Turning Off Grantor Trust Status
Since at least 1986, when tax brackets for almost all Americans were compressed, and as a result of Rev. Rul. 85-13, which held that grantor trusts effectively did not exist for income tax purposes, grantor trusts have been one of the most commonly used estate tax planning tools. A “grantor trust” is a trust in which the income is attributed to the creator of the trust under Section 671 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (or in certain cases to the trust beneficiary under Section 678), as though the trust did not exist.

Mr. Blattmachr is a Principal in ILS Management, LLC and a retired member of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York, NY and of the Alaska, California and New York Bars. He is recognized as one of the most creative trusts and estates lawyers in the country and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America. He has written and lectured extensively on estate and trust taxation and charitable giving.
Mr. Blattmachr graduated from Columbia University School of Law cum laude, where he was recognized as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and received his A.B. degree from Bucknell University, majoring in mathematics. He has served as a lecturer-in-law of the Columbia University School of Law and is an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University Law School in its Masters in Tax Program (LLM). He is a former chairperson of the Trusts & Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and of several committees of the American Bar Association. Mr. Blattmachr is a Fellow and a former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and past chair of its Estate and Gift Tax Committee. He is author or co-author of eight books and more than 500 articles on estate planning and tax topics.
Among professional activities, which are too numerous to list, Mr. Blattmachr has served as an Advisor on The American Law Institute, Restatement of the Law, Trusts 3rd; and as a Fellow of The New York Bar Foundation and a member of the American Bar Foundation.

Elizabeth (“Beth”) Boehmcke graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993. After graduation from law school through 2003, she specialized in high net worth estate planning, with an emphasis on cross-border and asset protection planning, and the representation of fiduciaries managing complex trusts and family businesses.
During her career in New York, she was an associate attorney at both Rogers & Wells (now Clifford Chance) and Hodgson Russ in New York City. After a hiatus in her legal career to care for her children, she resumed her legal career by passing the Virginia bar in 2014 and began working for the Hook Law Center, P.C., where she expanded her estate planning practice to include elder law, specifically focusing on asset protection planning for Medicaid and Veteran’s benefits.
She is a proud graduate of the University of Virginia where she received a B.A. with distinction in Psychology in 1988 and is also a graduate of SUNY-Buffalo where she received an M.A. in Clinical Psychology in 1990.

Teresa Bush joined InterActive Legal in 2007 and serves as Director of Education and Support Services.
Ms. Bush has been licensed to practice law since 1991, and focused her practice exclusively on issues of estate and gift tax planning, probate, charitable planning, and estate and trust administration. She began her practice in a small law firm, planning for clients of all levels of wealth. Thereafter, she practiced for a number of years in the Tax Section of Kelly, Hart and Hallman, P.C. in Fort Worth, Texas, and as an estate and gift tax consultant for the Dallas office of Ernst & Young, in both cases focusing on planning for very high net worth clients.
Ms. Bush received her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, where she was a research assistant for Professor Stanley M. Johanson. She studied at Edinburgh University and the London School of Economics prior to obtaining a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Rice University in Houston. While studying abroad, she worked as an intern for a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons.
Ms. Bush taught legal research and writing as a Teaching Quizmaster in law school, and later taught estate planning extension courses for American College of Financial Services CLU candidates. She has presented several online webinars on estate planning and drafting topics, and is the author or co-author of a variety of estate planning articles.

Vanessa Kanaga currently serves as InterActive Legal’s Special Advisor on Estate Planning and Legal Strategy. She is the former CEO of InterActive Legal. Vanessa received her J.D. from Cornell Law School and holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Wichita State University, as well as an Advanced Professional Certificate from New York University School of Law. She is licensed in New York, Kansas, and Arizona, and currently lives in Arizona.
Prior to joining InterActive Legal in 2013, Vanessa practiced in New York, at Milbank LLP and Moses & Singer LLP, and in Kansas, at Hinkle Law Firm, LLC. She has experience in a range of estate planning matters, including high net worth tax planning and asset protection planning.
In 2024, Vanessa returned to the practice of law. She is an Associate Attorney at Greengard Law Firm, PLC in Phoenix, Arizona.
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