Marital Deduction

In this subscriber drafting webinar, we will review the types of trusts that can be created for a surviving spouse, including trusts that qualify for the marital deduction (and therefore the step-up in basis at the survivor’s death),…

For those estate planners who represent married clients, the unlimited marital deduction is of paramount importance. In this age of uncertainty as to the size of the unified credit for estate taxes, or even as to whether the estate tax will…

Under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, taxpayers are permitted a federal gift tax exemption and an estate tax exemption. Although technically not exemptions but more in the nature of exemption "equivalents" that entitle taxpayers to a…

The Walton case (Walton v. Com., (2000) 115 T.C. 589), which sets forth how to reduce the gift element of a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (a "GRAT" herein) to near zero, and the subsequent acceptance thereof by the IRS as announced in…

Not infrequently, the first spouse to die will have inadequate assets in his or her taxable estate to ensure complete use of his or her estate tax exemption. This is more likely today now that the Federal estate tax exemption has risen to…

This article examines new regulations issued in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Hubert. The fundamental issue relates to the impact of administration expenses on the amount of a marital or charitable deduction. The regulations…

The charitable remainder trust, itself a by-product of tax reform, is one of the few estate planning devices left untouched by the tax reform bills of recent years. While practitioners, particularly those who do not dwell full-time in the…

In a prior issue of The Chase Review, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of various types of so-called marital deduction "formula" provisions (e.g., pecuniary or fractional) and the impact and some of the practical considerations…