Posts Tagged ‘grandchildren’

A time-tested method for making a tax-advantaged investment

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Do you have a large amount of retained earnings and excess cash in your corporation, but the double taxing power of the law has your cash locked in the corporation? Most business owners think they are stuck, but there’s an easy way out.

Here’s a true story of one way to get the job done and I think you’ll like it. Joe called me with this problem. He and his brother Jeff each owned 30 percent of Success Co., which they managed. Their mom (age 66) owed 20 percent in her own name, and a trust (created when their dad died) owned the other 20 percent. Mary’s professional advisors recommended that Mary obtain $2 million of life insurance using an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) to pay the estate tax liability that would be due at her death (because of the value of the assets she owned directly in her own name and indirectly as a beneficiary of her deceased husband’s trust).

The advisors were right. Mary needed the insurance, but she did not have a ghost of a chance of coming up with the annual premium requirements of $32,000 per year for as long as she lived.

I asked Joe lots of questions, conferred with the advisors and requested a large pile of information — stuff like tax returns, financial statements, etc. After discovering that Success Co. had $2.5 million in excess cash, this is what I recommended.

Mary gifts $1.2 million of her Success Co. stock (the total value of Success Co. was appraised at over $8 million) to a charitable remainder trust (CRT). The CRT agrees to pay Mary $72,000 per year for as long as she lives. At Mary’s death, the balance (called the “remainder”) in the CRT will go to charity. Each year Mary must pay $25,000 in income tax (on the $72,000 of income from the CRT) and $32,000 in premiums (for the $2 million policy, which is owned by an irrevocable life insurance trust, ILIT for short), or a total of $57,000. This leaves Mary an extra $15,000 per year to buy presents for her grandchildren.

The ILIT will give Mary’s children $2 million (in insurance proceeds) when she dies. The entire $2 million will be tax free — no income tax, no estate tax.

But where does the CRT get the income to pay Mary? The CRT sells the gifted stock back to Success Co. for $1.2 million. Let’s summarize Mary’s tax picture: Mary avoids all capital gains tax on the sale of the Success Co. stock. The balance in the CRT (estimated at $1.1 million) at Mary’s death goes to Mary’s favorite charity and is free of income tax and estate tax. In addition, Mary gets an immediate income tax deduction of about $200,000 for her charitable contribution to the CRT. Simply put, even though Mary avoids both the capital gains tax and the estate tax, the IRS writes her a check. For what, you ask? For the present value of the remainder (of the $1.2 million) gifted to the CRT.

This $200,000 (immediate deduction) results in about $70,000 in cash income tax savings for Mary. Lots more expensive presents for the grandchildren. (Note: If Mary had sold the $1.2 million of Success Co. stock directly to the company, it would have been taxed as a dividend, resulting in a whooping tax of $180,000.)

A side note before concluding: There are many other ways to get cash (or other types of property out of your C corporation) in a tax-effective manner. If you have such a problem, as a service to readers of this column, contact me.

The use of a CRT in tandem with an ILIT is a time-tested method for making a tax-advantaged investment for your family. You actually create wealth (make a real economic profit) by gifting to charity.

A Time-Tested Method For Making A Tax-Advantaged Investment

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Do you have a large amount of retained earnings and excess cash in your corporation, but the double taxing power of the law has your cash locked in the corporation? Most business owners think they are stuck, but there’s an easy way out.

Here’s a true story of one way to get the job done and I think you’ll like it. Joe called me with this problem. He and his brother Jeff each owned 30 percent of Success Co., which they managed. Their mom (age 66) owed 20 percent in her own name, and a trust (created when their dad died) owned the other 20 percent. Mary’s professional advisors recommended that Mary obtain $2 million of life insurance using an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) to pay the estate tax liability that would be due at her death (because of the value of the assets she owned directly in her own name and indirectly as a beneficiary of her deceased husband’s trust).

The advisors were right. Mary needed the insurance, but she did not have a ghost of a chance of coming up with the annual premium requirements of $32,000 per year for as long as she lived.

I asked Joe lots of questions, conferred with the advisors and requested a large pile of information — stuff like tax returns, financial statements, etc. After discovering that Success Co. had $2.5 million in excess cash, this is what I recommended.

Mary gifts $1.2 million of her Success Co. stock (the total value of Success Co. was appraised at over $8 million) to a charitable remainder trust (CRT). The CRT agrees to pay Mary $72,000 per year for as long as she lives. At Mary’s death, the balance (called the “remainder”) in the CRT will go to charity. Each year Mary must pay $25,000 in income tax (on the $72,000 of income from the CRT) and $32,000 in premiums (for the $2 million policy, which is owned by an irrevocable life insurance trust, ILIT for short), or a total of $57,000. This leaves Mary an extra $15,000 per year to buy presents for her grandchildren.

The ILIT will give Mary’s children $2 million (in insurance proceeds) when she dies. The entire $2 million will be tax free — no income tax, no estate tax.

But where does the CRT get the income to pay Mary? The CRT sells the gifted stock back to Success Co. for $1.2 million. Let’s summarize Mary’s tax picture: Mary avoids all capital gains tax on the sale of the Success Co. stock. The balance in the CRT (estimated at $1.1 million) at Mary’s death goes to Mary’s favorite charity and is free of income tax and estate tax. In addition, Mary gets an immediate income tax deduction of about $200,000 for her charitable contribution to the CRT. Simply put, even though Mary avoids both the capital gains tax and the estate tax, the IRS writes her a check. For what, you ask? For the present value of the remainder (of the $1.2 million) gifted to the CRT.

This $200,000 (immediate deduction) results in about $70,000 in cash income tax savings for Mary. Lots more expensive presents for the grandchildren. (Note: If Mary had sold the $1.2 million of Success Co. stock directly to the company, it would have been taxed as a dividend, resulting in a whooping tax of $180,000.)

A side note before concluding: There are many other ways to get cash (or other types of property out of your C corporation) in a tax-effective manner. If you have such a problem, as a service to readers of this column, contact me.

The use of a CRT in tandem with an ILIT is a time-tested method for making a tax-advantaged investment for your family. You actually create wealth (make a real economic profit) by gifting to charity.

Most Estate Plans Enrich The IRS, Not Your Family

Friday, April 17th, 2009

While scanning the pages of one of the trade journals that carries this tax column, a headline for an ad intrigued me: “We install 90 percent of what we sell. That’s one big advantage we have over (names one of the biggest square-footage discount chains).”

Here’s the sad routine when the gizmo doesn’t work:

“The manufacturers,” pleads the installer.

“Improperly installed,” counters the manufacturer.

Ultimately — after some grief and unnecessary dollars —the gizmo is fixed and it works.

Now, there’s a game you don’t want to play with your estate plan. Try this real-life story of a tax disaster.

Joe died, survived by his wife Mary, four grown kids (one, Sam, managed Joe’s family business, Success Co.) and seven grandchildren. Success Co. was a C corporation. Aside from owning their residence (worth $800,000) and Success Co. (valued at $9.8 million at Joe’s death), Joe and Mary had $275,000 of spendable personal wealth. In addition, they owned various personal property and a nice summer home with a total value of $1.2 million.

About five years before he died, Joe had gathered a team of professionals to do his estate plan: his CPA, a lawyer who specialized in estate planning, and his long-time friend, an insurance agent.

The professionals crafted a great traditional estate plan: no tax due at Joe’s death (the 100 percent marital deduction) and enough insurance (second-to-die) to pay the projected estate tax at Mary’s death. An irrevocable life insurance trust owned the second-to-die policy on Joe’s and Mary’s lives. The estate plan probably would get an A-plus in the classroom.

But here are the unfortunate little lifetime details — told to me by Sam in an urgent phone call the professional team missed:

Mary, a healthy age 65, did not have a flow of income or enough spendable assets to maintain her lifestyle. Joe’s $500,000 salary, plus generous perks from Success Co., stopped when he died. Aside from the usual lifestyle cash needs, Mary needed $46,000 per year to pay the second-to-die insurance premium. Also, she wanted to continue providing the college education for four of her grandchildren( the other three had completed their education, which was paid for by Joe and Mary).

None of the professionals accepted responsibility for Mary’s lack of spendable income. Worse yet, they had no suggestions to solve the problem.

First, the solution to Mary’s immediate problem: The marital trust (created in Joe’s revocable trust as part of his estate plan) owned 85 percent of Success Co. (Mary owned the other 15 percent). We simply had the stockholders (the marital trust and Mary) elect S Corporation status for Success Co. The large corporate profit will easily provide the income stream-via S corporation dividends-she needs, as the beneficiary of the marital trust (85 percent) and as a direct owner (15 percent).

Now, what lesson should be learned from this sad tale?

The first lesson is that estate planning (as practiced all over the United States) is really death planning. Do the documents: a will and a trust or two, put ’em in the vault, and wait to die.

Rather than rehash what should have been done for Joe and Mary, let’s get the first lesson up on the board — loud and clear.

Whether you call it estate planning, lifetime planning, wealth transfer planning or whatever, your master plan must include three separate plans: (1) a lifetime plan to transfer your wealth while you are alive (and, yes you can control your wealth for as long as you live); (2) a retirement plan that provides the after-tax cash flow needed to maintain your lifestyle for you and your spouse for as long as either one of you lives; and (3) a transfer/succession plan for your business. (Note: Not even one of these three was done by the typical traditional estate plan for Joe and Mary.)

If you have yet to do your master plan, make sure it includes the three plans listed above. If your master plan is done and does not include all three of the plans listed above, get a second opinion. And finally, make sure that the professionals who create your plan know in advance that they are responsible for all aspects; he who creates the plan should install it and monitor it to the day you (and your spouse) die.

Remember, just because your estate plan is done, does not mean it is done right. Wouldn’t you want your plan to be in the 10 percent that enriches your family, instead of the 90 percent with a plan that enriches the IRS?

Why Your Estate Tax Plan Often Flunks The Real-Life Test

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

While thumbing through the pages of a trade journal, I ran across this quote, “We install 90 percent of what we sell. That’s one big advantage we have over (names one of the biggest square-footage discount chains).”

You know the routine: the thing-a-ma-jig doesn’t work. “The manufacturer,” says the installer; “improperly installed,” counters the manufacturer.

Ultimately-after some grief and probably more dollars — and it works.

Now, there’s a game you don’t want to play with your estate plan. Try this real-life tax horror story.

Joe died, survived by his wife, Mary, three grown kids (one managed Joe’s family business, Success Co.) and seven grandchildren. Success Co. was a C corporation. Aside from owning their residence (worth $800,000) and Success Co. (valued at $10.3 million at Joe’s death), before Joe died, he and Mary enjoyed about $350,000 of after-tax spendable personal income. In addition, they owned various personal property and a nice summer home with a total value of over $1 million.

About five years before he died, Joe gathered a team of professionals to do his estate plan: his CPA, a lawyer who specialized in estate planning and his long-time friend, an insurance agent.

The professionals crafted a good traditional estate plan: no tax due at Joe’s death (the marital deduction) and enough insurance (second-to-die) to pay the projected estate tax at Mary’s death. An irrevocable life insurance trust owned the second-to-die policy on Joe’s and Mary’s lives.

The estate plan probably would get an “A” in the classroom. But here’s the unfortunate big lifetime detail the professional team missed:

Mary, a healthy age 64, did not have enough cash flow to maintain her lifestyle. Joe’s $550,000 salary, plus generous perks from Success Co., stopped when he died.

Aside from the usual lifestyle cash needs, Mary needed $46,000 per year to pay the second-to-die insurance premium. Also, she wanted to continue providing for the college education of three of her grandchildren (the other five had completed their education paid for by Joe and Mary).

None of the professionals accepted responsibility for Mary’s lack of necessary spendable income. Worse yet, they had no suggestions to solve the problem.

First, the solution to Mary’s immediate problem: the cash flow to maintain her lifestyle. The marital trust (created in Joe’s revocable trust as part of his estate plan) owned 90 percent of Success Co. (Mary owned the other 10 percent). We simply had the stockholders (the marital trust and Mary) elect S Corporation status for Success Co.

Now the large corporate profit can provide the income stream Mary needs, as the beneficiary of the marital trust (90 percent) and as a direct owner (10 percent).

What lesson should be learned from this sad tale? The first lesson is that estate planning (as practiced all over the United States) is really death planning, put ’em in the vault and wait to die. Do the documents (a will and a trust or two).

Rather than rehash what should have been done for Joe and Mary, let’s get the first lesson up on the board — loud and clear.

Whether you call it estate planning, lifetime planning, wealth transfer planning or whatever, your master plan must include three separate plans:

(1) a lifetime plan to transfer your wealth while you are alive (and, yes you can control your wealth for as long as you live);

(2) a retirement plan that provides the after-tax cash flow needed to maintain your lifestyle for you (and your spouse) for as long as you (or your spouse) live;

(3) a transfer/succession plan for your business (that gets the value of the business out of your estate tax-free) to your business kids (or other successor).

Whether your master plan is done or is yet to be done, make sure it includes the three plans listed above. And always get an independent second opinion.

Finally, make sure that the professionals who create your plan know in advance they are responsible for all aspects: he who creates the plan should install it and monitor it to the day you (and your spouse) die.

Don’t Let ‘Estate-Tax-Itis’ Drain The Family Wealth

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Adreaded disease is spreading like wildfire — in all 50 of the United States.

It debilitates most successful business owners, then, ravages some or all of the kids and eventually hurts the grandkids.

Known by various names, the most common name is “estate-tax-itus.” It drains family wealth.

Some people don’t even know they have the disease. Most know because they have the painful symptoms (a huge tax bill) and search in vain for a cure. They attend seminars, read articles, special reports and books. They go from advisor to advisor looking for relief.

The key question is: “Is there a cure?”

The answer is a resounding :Yes!”

This article shows you how to start the process to totally cure estate-tax-itus for yourself, your family and your business — every time, no matter how young or old you are, whether you are worth $1 million, $10 million (or much more).

There are many ways to fight the disease, but the best way is to build a “tax-immune system.” For best results, start today.

Here’s a three-step process that works every time. Steps No. 1 and No. 2 make the diagnosis. Step No. 3 accomplishes the cure.

Step No. 1: Prepare a personal financial statement for you and your spouse. Divide your assets into the following five categories.

— Residence

— Business

— Qualified plans (pension, profit-sharing, 401(k), rollover IRA or other qualified plans)

— All other assets (typically, investments)

— Life insurance

Step No. 2: Make a list of your goals (actually three lists) — (1) for you and (if married) your spouse; (2) for your family (typically children and grandchildren); and (3) your business.

Here are the typical core goals we see in practice:

For list (1) — Maintain your lifestyle for as long as you (husband and wife) live and allow you to control your assets for as long as you live;

For list (2) — transfer your assets to the children and grandchildren intact — free of the estate tax-and educate your grandchildren;

For list (3) — transfer your business to the business child (or children) tax-free and treat the non-business children fairly.

Step. No. 3: Find an advisor who knows how to identify and implement the exact tax strategies that accomplish your goals using the specific assets on your financial statement.

Following are the are most often-used strategies we use in our practice to accomplish a typical client’s goals, based on the assets owned.

Your Residence. Use a Qualified personal residence trust to remove the residence from your estate, yet live in it and control it for as long as you live.

Your Business. Transfer your business to the business children using an Intentionally Defective Trust. It removes the business from your estate, transfers business to kids (tax-free to you and the kids), yet allows you to keep control for life (because you retain voting control).

Qualified plans. The funds in these plans are double-taxed, robbing your family of about 75 percent of the plan funds (i.e. the tax collectors get about $750,000 if you have $1 million in the plans, your family receives only $250.000).

Create a Subtrust or retirement plan rescue (RPR) to buy life insurance. This usually triples (or more) the amount you have in the plan, and your heirs get it all tax-free. For example, $1 million in the plan (worth only $250,000 to your family) will turn into $3 million (or more) for your family with a Subtrust or a RPR. And the entire $3 million is tax-free.

All other assets. Transfer these assets (all your assets, except those in the first three categories; for example, publicly traded stocks, bonds, real estate and other investments) to a family limited partnership, which legally reduces the value of these assets for tax purposes by 35 percent (yes, $1 million of real estate, stocks, bonds, etc. are only worth only $650,000 for tax purposes.)

Insurance. Get it out of your corporation and transfer all policies you or your spouse own to an irrevocable life insurance trust (But a Subtrust is best, if you can use it. See 3. above). Also, check out premium financing, a wonderful concept that allows you to buy huge amounts of life insurance ($3 million, $10 million or more) without paying premiums.

Finally, if your estate plan is already done, and it does not effectively eliminate the estate tax, get a second opinion.

How You Can Enrich Your Family And Charity Too

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Patrick Henry once said, “I have but one lamp by which my feet are lighted, and that is the lamp of experience.” After years of working in the area of wealth transfer, business succession, estate planning and related areas my view of my client’s view of philosophy changed. Why? Experience!

You’ll like what you are about to read: How to actually make money while giving it away.

An important task for tax advisors (particularly those doing estate planning) is to make sure they have a clear understanding of each client’s goals. So, one of the questions yours truly (or my staff) would ask each client was (and still is), “Do you have charitable intent?” Most clients answered, “No” and that was that. For those that said, “Yes,” we had a large arsenal of tax-advantaged charitable strategies that would enrich not only charity, but substantially enrich our clients too. Every client always made an economic-after-tax-profit.

One day (about 10 years ago) we decided to dig a bit deeper when a client said, “No” to our charity question. Following are the two most important questions we asked, the answers and what (to our surprise) we learned.

First, a simple one word question: “Why?” (did you say “No”). About two out of every three clients responded with something like, “I don’t want to reduce the amount of my children’s and grandchildren’s inheritance.”

After learning this, it made good sense to follow with the next question. Actually two questions designed to get a ‘Yes.’ First, “Would you consider making a substantial gift to charity, if it would not reduce your heirs’ inheritance?” And if that didn’t do the trick, then second, “Would you make a large charitable gift if you could actually make an after-tax profit?” Then, almost all clients say “yes” or “show me how” or something similar.

The simple fact is that the tax law has two tax-free environments: charity and life insurance. Marry them and you are on the road to tax heaven. Let’s stay away from the technical stuff (like charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts and their many ways to help you and charity) and look at two basic examples.

Suppose Joe and Mary (married and both age 65) buy a 15-year pay, $4 million second-to-die life insurance policy. The annual premium is $20,618 per $1 million payable for 15 years or a total of $1.237 million ($20,618 X 15 X 4). Joe and Mary set it up so their favorite charity is irrevocably the beneficiary of the policy.

Let’s take a look at the tax consequences of this charitable gesture by Joe and Mary. They are in a 40 percent income tax bracket (counting State and Federal combined), a 55 percent estate tax bracket (using 2011 rates).

First, let’s look at the estate tax picture: in a 55 percent estate tax bracket, the real story is that the IRS paid 55 percent of that $1.237 million. Since it’s gone, the IRS can’t tax it. So, the real out-of-pocket cost to Joe and Mary (after estate tax consideration) is only $557 thousand (45 percent of $1.237 million).

Second, let’s look at the income tax consequences of the transaction. In a 40 percent income tax bracket, Joe and Mary save $8,247 ($20,618 X 40%) each year as a charitable deduction.

Next, Joe and Mary buy $1.6 million of 15-year pay, second-to-die life insurance in an irrevocable life insurance trust (to keep the proceeds out of their estate). What’s the annual premium cost (only for 15 years)? You guessed it. Their annual $8,247 income tax savings.

Finally, let’s put it all together. Favorite charity will wind up with $4 million. Joe and Mary’s family will make over a cool $1 million ($1.6 insurance proceeds less the after tax cost-$557 thousand-of the premiums paid for the gift to charity).

Yes, it’s easy to “enrich your family (actually make a profit) and charity too.”

The above is only the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of similar strategies to enrich your family while you enrich charity. This example (the one with the best leverage) is “premium financing” where $500,000 can be turned into $6.5 million for Joe and Mary and then shared with their favorite charity. Joe and Mary can divide the $6.5 million, $5 million to their family and $1.5 million to charity (or in any other ratio they desire). Now, $500,000 turned into $6.5 million. That’s tax and economic leverage!

Most of the time favorite charity is your own family foundation, that bears your name. By now you get the idea: if you (or your spouse or both) are lucky enough to be insurable, you can leverage small amounts of capital (a $500,000 investment or less, paid out in small amounts over many years) to mushroom into large tax-free amounts ($5 million or more). Divide your tax-free profits between your family and charity any way you desire.

Join the tax-free wealth-creating fun. For more information on how-to-do it for your family (and/or your favorite charity) send a copy of your personal financial statement to Irv Blackman, 3960 Deer Crossing Court, Unit #102, Naples, Florida 34114. Please include all phone numbers where you can be reached: work, home and cell.

One happy Mom learned that the right planning can be tax magic.

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Do you have a large amount of retained earnings and excess cash in your corporation, but the double taxing power of the law has your cash locked in the corporation? Most business owners think they are stuck, but there’s a way out.

Here’s a true story of one way to get the job done. You’ll like it. Joe called me with this problem. Joe and his brother Jeff each owned 30 percent of Success Co., which they managed.

His mom, Mary, 66, owned 20 percent in her own name, and a trust created when Joe’s dad died owned the other 20 percent. Mary’s professional advisors recommended that she obtain $2 million of insurance using an irrevocable life insurance trust to pay the estate tax liability that would be due at her death — because of the value of the assets she owned directly in her own name and indirectly as a beneficiary of her deceased husband’s trust. The advisors were right. Mary needed the insurance, but she did not have any chance of coming up with the annual premium requirements of $32,000 for as long as she lived.

I asked Joe lots of questions, conferred with the advisors and requested a large pile of information — stuff like tax returns, financial statements, etc. After discovering that Success Co. had $2.5 million in excess cash, this is what I recommended.

Mary gifts $1.2 million of her Success Co. stock — the total value of Success Co. was appraised at over $8 million — to a charitable remainder trust. The charitable trust agrees to pay Mary $72,000 per year for as long as she lives. At Mary’s death, the balance, called the “remainder,” in the trust would go to charity. Each year Mary must pay $25,000 in income tax on the $72,000 of income from the charitable trust and $32,000 in premiums for the $2 million policy, which is owned by the life insurance trust, or a total of $57,000. This leaves Mary an extra $15,000 per year to buy presents for her grandchildren.

The life insurance trust will give Mary’s children $2 million in insurance proceeds when she dies. The entire $2 million will be tax free: no income tax and no estate tax.

But where does the charitable trust get the income to pay Mary? The charitable trust sells the gifted stock back to Success Co. for $1.2 million.

Let’s summarize Mary’s tax picture. Mary avoids all capital gains tax on the sale of the Success Co. stock. The balance in the charitable trust estimated at $1.1 million at Mary’s death goes to Mary’s favorite charity and is free of income tax and estate tax.

In addition, Mary gets an immediate income tax deduction of about $200,000 for her contribution to the charitable trust.

Simply put, even though Mary avoids both the capital gains tax and the estate tax, the IRS writes her a check. For what, you ask? For the present value of the remainder of the $1.2 million gifted to the charitable trust. This $200,000 (immediate deduction) results in about $70,000 in cash income tax savings for Mary — more expensive presents for the grandkids.

(Note: If Mary had sold the $1.2 million of Success Co. stock directly to the company, it would have been taxed as a dividend, resulting in a whopping tax of $180,000.)

A side note before concluding: There are many other ways to get cash or other types of property out of C corporations in a tax-effective manner. If you have such a problem, as a service to readers of this column, call me with your problem (847) 674-5295.

The use of a charitable remainder trust in tandem with an irrevocable life insurance trust is actually a method for making a tax-advantaged investment for your family. You may actually create wealth and make a real economic profit by giving to charity.