DEAR GARDEN STATE TRUST COMPANY: I’ve inherited a substantial IRA from my parent. What are my choices? Can I roll over the money into my own IRA? What I’d really like to do is convert the inherited IRA to a Roth IRA. —FORTUNATE HEIR DEAR FORTUNATE: Those approaches are not available to you. Because…
Month: April 2016
Washington Talk
Deadline deferred. On July 31, 2015, the President signed into law the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015. One minor component of the legislation implemented an idea that had been included in the President’s earlier budget messages: requiring consistent basis reporting for income and estate tax purposes. To this end, executors…
Penciled changes to a photocopy of a will, including “void,” does not revoke it.
In re Estate of Sullivan, 868 N.W.2d 750 (Minn. Ct. App. 2015) Esther Sullivan executed her will in January 2006. The will was properly notarized and had the required two witnesses. Esther divided her estate between her grandson, Joseph, a former employee, Tara Jean. The nature of the employment was not disclosed by the court,…
Unexpectedly strong post-death auction sale raises date-of-death death value.
Estate of Newberger v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo. 2015-2464 Bernice Newberger died in July 2009. Her estate included three valuable pieces of art, for which it obtained appraisals from Sotheby’s and Christie’s. The valuation was complicated by the fact that the market for fine art took a steep dive in 2008, as the economy slipped into…
Portability election errors
The increase in the amount exempt from federal estate tax to $5 million per taxpayer (plus inflation adjustments) has been a game changer for estate planners. Nearly as important, when it comes to estate plans for married couples, is the advent of the portability of the estate tax exemption, the Deceased Spouse’s Unused Exemption (DSUE).…
Rocky Start
April 4, 2016—Equity indices tumbled in January, amid uncertainty about global economic growth, oil prices and developments in China. Oil prices bottomed in February, and stocks slowly struggled back to where they’d started the year. At the end of the first quarter, the S&P 500 was up 13% off its lows, up 0.8% on the…
Rent or Own?
In 2009 the average age of a home seller was 46. Last year, according to the National Association of Realtors, it was 54. The Wall Street Journal reports a notable increase in the number of older renters. There were an estimated 7.5 million renters age 55 and older in 2005, and about 10.8 million in…