Tax Planning
Smart Tax Strategies for Everyone
Even though the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has more than doubled the current estate tax exemption, there are still many tax issues to consider during estate planning. If you are setting up trusts, establishing education funds, or creating other auxiliary funding mechanisms for your heirs, the tax consequences can be even more significant.
Robert Turner of Turner Law and his seasoned professionals have been following the estate tax laws for years, and they have mastered every possible strategy for all of your assets—whether transferred through a traditional bequest or other mechanism. With our guidance, you can be confident of minimal tax consequences for everyone involved, even if the estate exceeds the exemption amount.
Some of the many strategies we help you evaluate include:
Tax-free Gifts: Set up a program that automatically gifts up to $13,000, tax free, to your family and other heirs on a yearly basis.
Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT): Exclude the death benefit of your life insurance policies from your estate by making an ILIT the beneficiary. Then, set up a lifetime of controlled, periodic distributions for spouses, children and grandchildren.
Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT): Remove your home from your estate before you die, yet continue to live there for a set period of time (usually 10-15 years). At the end of the period, ownership of the home transfers to the trust beneficiaries, and you can continue living there by paying rent. This mechanism reduces the value of the home over time, for tax purposes, freeing more of your estate exemption for other assets.
Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT): One of the best ways to benefit from intangible assets now without burdening your estate or heirs. Transfer highly appreciated assets (stocks; real estate) to an irrevocable trust and remove it from your estate. You get a huge charitable income tax deduction now, and the trust sells the asset at market value and transfers it to income-producing investments. For the rest of your life, you collect income, and the assets go to a charity at the time of your death.
Contact Us for a Free Initial Phone Consultation
These are only a few of the many tax planning strategies our experts can help you evaluate as part of our estate planning services. To start the process with a free initial phone consultation, call lawyer Robert Turner at his Decatur, GA, office at phone number(404) 377-6941 or fill out the contact form on this web site.
