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With record low interest rates, homeowners are rushing to refinance their mortgages.  With 30-year fixed rates averaging around 4%, who can blame them?   Moreover, with many lenders also offering to waive closing costs, it...

Over the past few months, proof of service affidavits have come across my desk bearing signatures that were obviously the product of a rubber stamp. In fact, one “signature” was stamped in block letters. Clearly, the...

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the “Act”) added a  “portability feature” for estates of decedents dying after 2010 and before 2013.  This allows a surviving...

Every once in a while, the federal government gets it right.  Cost of Living Adjustments impacting tax rates for 2012 were recently released and most of the adjustments are favorable (see The Wall Street Journal, October 22,...

In 2010, the Federal Estate Tax was repealed.  Then, it was brought back on December 17th of the same year.  Confused?  Join the club. The executor of an estate for a person dying in 2010 will have to file an estate tax...

Location, I am told, is a huge factor in determining the value of real estate.  Turns out, location can play a big factor in your estate tax bill as well. Under IRC §  2103, a nonresident, not a citizen of the United...

…Unless someone other than you knows that it exists.  I constantly remind my clients to keep their estate planning documents in a safe place, but not too safe.  Specifically, your executor and trustee will need to...

Asset Protection Nearly all of my clients are interested in “asset protection” in some form or the other.  In particular, they are concerned about protecting their home from creditors. ...