Family Wealth Blueprint: Design Your Legacy with GRATs & IDGTs

If you’re thinking of transferring assets to your children, grandchildren and distant descendants, you may want to consider using a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) or an intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT). Both estate planning tools can be used to freeze the value of the assets you transfer. Let’s look at the basics of each: […]

Estate Planning Pitfalls Exist If A Significant Portion Of Your Wealth Is Concentrated In A Single Stock

Estate planning and investment risk management go hand in hand. After all, an estate plan is effective only if you have some wealth to transfer to the next generation. One of the most effective strategies for reducing your investment risk is to diversify your holdings. However, it’s not unusual for affluent people to end up […]

Now Or Later: When’s The Right Time To Transfer Your Wealth?

To gift or not to gift? It’s a deceptively complex question. The temporary doubling of the federal gift and estate tax exemption — to an inflation-adjusted $11.7 million in 2021 — is viewed by some people as a “use it or lose it” proposition. In other words, you should make gifts now to take advantage […]