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Most parents choose to leave their estates equally to their children. But sometimes, parents intentionally choose to not leave anything to a child. There may be what the parents consider to be a legitimate reason: one child has been more financially successful than...

When considering how to leave assets to adult children, the first step is to decide how much each one should receive. Most parents want to treat their children fairly, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they should receive equal shares of the estate. For example, it...

James Gandolfini's estate plan ended up costing him about $30 million, not in legal fees, but in a missed opportunity to avoid estate taxes. The simple use of a marital trust ( a QTIP --"Qualified Terminable Interest Property" trust) would have given his second wife...

FISCAL CLIFF NOTES - CAPITAL GAINS Under the new American Taxpayer Relief Act ("ATRA"), taxpayers whose ordinary income is generally taxed at a rate below 25%, capital gains and dividends will permanently be subject to a 0% rate.  Taxpayers who are subject to a...

Under Maryland law, retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, 403Bs, etc.) are exempt from the claims of creditors.  However, the 7th US Circuit Court (Maryland is in the 4th Circuit) has recently declared that Inherited IRAs do not enjoy the same protections.  While...

The "fiscal cliff" tax fix, known as ATRA, matched the federal lifetime gift exemption of five million dollars to the federal estate tax exemption amount; also five million dollars.  Coincidentally (and beneficially for Maryland residents), Maryland has no gift tax. ...

.. the deductibility of mortgage insurance premiums as qualified residence interest is now revived for 2012 and continued through 2013 (if insuring the ability to pay your mortgage is important to you, you can now also deduct the cost of the insurance premiums).

The new tax law, ATRA, permanently increases the Alternative Minimum Tax ("AMT") exemption amounts to $50,600 for unmarried taxpayers, $78,750 for joint filers and $39,375 for married persons filing separately.  In addition, this change is retroactive to tax years...

ATRA prevents steep increases in estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax that were slated to occur for individuals dying and gifts made after 2012 by permanently keeping the exemption level at $5,000,000. However, the Act also permanently increases the...

The Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene rolls out the new Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment form on October 1, 2011. Benefits This form provides benefits to patients by causing their preferences for life-sustaining treatment to follow them...