Wealth Preservation, Trusts and Estates

Are you wondering:

Should I update my estate plan, will or trust?

Do I need a new power of attorney?

I have over 3.5 million dollars how does the affect me?

I have under 1.0 million dollars. What now?

To Roth or not to Roth?

What is happening to the estate tax?

What if I leave the old formula will in place is my spouse disinherited?

If you need more information on any or all of these click here to read this great review of the current situation by CBS.

Here is the WSJ Smart Money Article. Click here to read more.

David M. Frees III
Attorney David Frees is available at 610-933-8069

For an appointment to update your estate planning, or for consultation regarding
duties as an executor or trustee, please call Donna, Denise, or Beth at 610-933-8069.

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By: Pennsylvania Trust and Estate Attorney – David M. Frees III

Many wills and trusts are drafted to leave the maximum amount that can pass tax free to children or other heirs and the balance to the spouse. However, thanks to the failure of Congress to act, the estate tax has lapsed effective January 1, 2010.

This type of planning is especially common with our wealthy clients and also very common in cases where clients are in second marriages with children from prior marriages.

However, you should be sure to check your estate planning documents given this unexpected change. If the formula results in either too much going into trust, or in disinheriting a spouse, this will create undesirable results, and may result in numerous will challenges.

Click here to see the Wall Street Journal review of this important estate tax issue for married couples.

David M. Frees III - Trust, Estate and Asset Protection Planning Lawyer*
610-933-8069

* Note, that in Pennsylvania, there are no professional designations for lawyers. The use of the expression trust lawyer or related topics merely indicates that the lawyer or attorney focuses his or her practice primarily in those areas of law. As a consumer, it is important to ascertain the level of experience that the particular attorney has in any area of law including trust and estate planning, asset protection, and probate law, and estate and trust administration.

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We would like to take this opportunity to say “Happy New Year and Thank You” from the entire firm and from the Trust, Estate and Wealth Preservation Section of Unruh, Turner, Burke and Frees.

We know that in this area of the state of Pennsylvania, you have many choices for your trust, estate planning, and probate lawyers as well as for your elder law needs.

For that reason, we both thank you and want to let you know that we have once again, in preparation for the new year, spent time, resources, and money in making changes that we think will enhance your experience as a client of the firm.

First, in addition to our two Estate Section partners, David M. Frees III and Douglas L. Kaune.

Jennifer adds more depth of tax practice (especially tax issues facing trusts and estates) and will also be helping us to focus on the unique issues facing women in their estate planning.

We have added two blogs designed to bring you more and timely news and information on estate planning, asset protection planning, and information and news for executors and trustees. In addition, we are currently working on a new web site and blog oriented just for families in need of elder law and nursing home advice and information. Be sure to read and watch www.UTBF.com/trust-estate and www.PaEstatePlanners.com for the latest news and information affecting you, your business, investments, and your family.

We have also invested in new software that we believe will take us to the next level in preparing and updating your tax returns, estate and trust accountings, and the family settlement agreements that we often use to avoid much of the probate process.

Several other associates and partners of the firm, including Denise Werkley, Theo Claypoole, William Burke, Don Turner, John Fiorillo, and Stephen LaGoy will be working on matters with the Estate Section – especially when planning involves family limited partnerships, closely held businesses, and real estate or when there are matters involving litigation.

We would also like to welcome Beth MacNulty as our new client relations manager. Beth’s jobs will include helping you to get appointments that fit your schedule, confirm appointments, making sure that your estate planning documents have been received by you and are stored safely, and in assisting you in emergency appointments, and with your other needs as they arise.

Beth can be reached by calling 610-933-8069.

In addition, David Frees was recently honored by receiving AVVO’s highest lawyer rating of 10.0 or Suberb and presented again to the prestigious Pennsylvania Bar Institute Estate Institute on the topic of Estate Planning for Families with Young Children. David has also just finished, with his brother Robb Frees, a soon to be published book and report on What Consumers Need To Know about insurance law.

Douglas Kaune was admitted as a member of NAELA (National Association of Elder Law Attorneys) and Doug in addition to his work in the are of sophisticated estate planning is working on three new reports for consumers on the changing laws in the area of Elder Law and Nursing Home issues.

In conclusion, we thank you for your continue support ans we look for new ways to help you through this difficult time with the many changes and the uncertainty now that Congress has allowed the state tax to lapse but at the same time is threatening to restore it retroactively.

For estate planning questionnaires, estate planning appointments, appointments to update older estate plans, or for any of our free reports for executors please call 610-933-8069.

David M. Frees III, Esquire – Chairman: Trust, Estate and Wealth Preservation Section
Douglas L. Kaune, Esquire – Trust Estate and Wealth Preservation and Chairman: Elder Law Section

Donna Brownback – Paralgel
Denise Fox – Paralegal
Beth MacNulty – Client Relations Manager

The firm maintains offices in Malvern, West Chester, and Phoenixville

610-933-8069

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Estate Planning For Pennsylvania Families With Young Children By: Pennsylvania Attorney David M. Frees III

On Friday, December 12th 2009 Chester County Attorney David M Frees was a faculty memeber at the Philadelphia Convention Center to present his well attended program: Estate Planning For Families With Young Children.

Frees, who spoke for the PBI (Pennsylvania Bar Institute) was asked to return to the event faculty for his second year of presenting on this topic. Frees, who Chairs the Unruh, Turner, Burke and Frees Trust, estate and Wealth Preservation section, taught lawyers from around the state about the most important topics for lawyers representing families with young children and how to best serve their clients.

Frees’ topics included many of the best practices in estate planning including: how to help families to select guardians, 2) the advantages and disadvantages of trusts vs uniform transfers to minors accounts, 3) who should be the trustee?, 4) At what ages should distributions be made and how should you instruct the trustees when you’re no longer available?, as well as how to use 529 plans for Pennsylvania residents and, 5) should parents consider a sprinkle trust where there is an age gap between the children and until they graduate from college?

Other topics included planning to protect children and grandchildren from divorce and lawsuits.

Many of the lawyers in attendance have returned to see David on this topic for more than one or two sessions knowing that they will get the latest thinking and a real overview of the pros and cons of many different estate planning options to share with their clients.

If you need to update a will, trust, or estate plan, or if you are the parent or grandparent of young children and want your plan to truly reflect your thinking and wishes, please call Donna or Denise in the office of David M. Frees III at 610-933-8069. Mention this press release to receive a free copy of David M. Frees’ recent report: The Ten Most Common Mistakes Executors Make and How To Avoid Them.

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There is a lot happening in the normally calm, cool, and collected world of the estate tax, and estate planning. The Wall Street Journal Article on the latest failure of Congress to act on Federal Estate Tax issues actually called the situation “frenzied” and not without reason.

While we, as your advisers, are keeping our usual cool and focused demeanor, there are reasons to be cautious and to keep an eye on this situation if you have total assets (husband, wife or single person) of over one million dollars including your life insurance.

We are bringing you news and analysis as soon as it breaks and we have a chance to crunch the numbers, read the bills, and think about the unthinkable (or previously believed to be unthinkable) a year without the federal estate tax.

That’s right, Congress has fumbled the ball and an extension of the bill seems almost impossible at this point. But, many members are threatening to reenact the law after the holiday break and to have it apply retroactively to January 1, 2009.

There are a few unexpected consequences of the federal estate tax going away and this Wall Street Journal Article has a good quick review and a couple of important alerts.

Stay tuned for more news and information as it becomes available.

David M Frees III
610-933-8069

David Frees focuses his practice in the following areas of law: estate planning, estate administration, asset protection planning and wills, trusts, and related topics.

Frees is a Phoenixville lawyer, Malvern Lawyer, and West Chester Lawyer, with offices throughout Chester County, Pennsylvania.

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David M Frees III, Esquire has just been awarded AVVO’s highest lawyer and attorney rating of 10.0. Frees heads the Trust, Estate, and Wealth Transfer Section of Unruh, Turner, Burke and Frees with offices in Phoenixville, Malvern, and West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Frees whose practice is limited to trusts, wills, estates, probate, asset protection, and estate planning helps families and individuals to create effective estate tax, asset protection, and business succession plans.

However, Frees notes that “The firm has lawyers that work in many different areas so that our clients’ needs ranging from personal matters such as estate planning, personal injury and related matters are well protected and served by the firm. And, many other firm practice areas help clients in their business, real estate, and related commercial matters.”

“I am honored to receive AVVO’s highest professional rating. AVVO is one of the premier lawyer search and referral sites on the internet and rates lawyers on a variety of factors. I regularly publish legal guidelines and answer estate planning, will, trust, and probate questions for AVVO users and I believe that it is a powerful tool for consumers.”

Thanks to everyone, including my partners and associates, my support staff, and the other lawyers and clients who have helped me to achieve this honor. I have a great team of people that I work with and great clients that we serve.”

Frees’ offices provide trust, estate, and estate planning services to the entire Philadelphia region, including but not limited to Chester and Montgomery Counties, Berks, Bucks and Lancaster Counties and many communities such as Ardmore, Devon, Berwyn, Paoli, Malvern, Willistown Township, Charlestown Township, East Pikeland, Schuylkill Township, and Doylestown

More information about AVVO rating and search services for Pennsylvania residents can be viewed by clicking this link.

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By: David M. Frees III, Esquire Will, Trust and Estate Planning for the End of The Year.

Want to make sure that you avoid the most common estate planning mistakes at the end of the year and that you are reviewing and doing what you need to complete to make sure that your new year starts off just right?

Want to know how much you can gift without filing a gift tax return?

Need to know when those gift checks have to be cashed before you’ve got a problem?

Then click here for a short video and a checklist that you can print out and follow.

It could save you and your heirs thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.

END OF YEAR GIFTING, Estate Planning and Asset Protection CHECKLIST, and VIDEO by David Frees

David M. Frees III
Asset Protection and Estate Planning

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If you are a Pennsylvania resident, your estate is subject to many death taxes including the Pennsylvania Inheritance and Estate Tax as well as the Federal Estate Tax. If you have been watching the news, you know that one of those tax systems – the federal estate tax is due to expire quite soon.

Why?

Congress has yet to act on the pending repeal of the federal estate tax. But, the pressures on our tax system are so great that most commentators feel that they must keep the tax in place. If Congress allows the tax to temporarily lapse, it appears that they might then re-enact it retroactively to the start of 2010.

In addition to being confusing to taxpayers, and raising a difficult constitutional issue, this makes rational estate tax planning almost impossible.

In any case, the question of repeal or repair of the federal estate tax (also known to its detractors as the “death tax”), will almost certainly be the next political hot potato after health care reform is resolved.

Have you made up your mind yet? We try to present many different views on this issue and we welcome your comments. We also encourage you to contact your Congressional representative and Senator to demand action on this vital issue.

Here is an article from the Heritage Foundation on 7 reasons to repeal rather than reform the federal estate tax.

Please leave your comments below.

David M. Frees III
Chairman: Trust, Estate and wealth Preservation Section
Unruh, Turner, Burke and Frees

Offices in: Phoenixville, Malvern and West Chester

wills trusts estates powers of attorney and living wills
estate planning

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First a few preliminaries on the Grantor Retained Annuity Trust or GRAT.

What is a GRAT? GRAT stand for Grantor Retained Annuity Trust. It is a special trust where you can make a gift and get the original amount back over a period of years and the growth of the asset remains in the trust – usually, for children.

Why do people do GRATs? GRATs are often used in times of low interest rates, and low asset values to move substantial growth in an undervalued stock, family business, or even real estate, out to the next generation.

Can you give an example? Yes. Mrs Walton (Sam Walton’s wife) contributed a substantial amount of Walmart stock to a GRAt for her children. The trust had to pay her back the stock (or cash) plus interest over a peiod of years. However, because her stock rose so much in value, even when she was paid back, a great deal of wealth remained in the trust for her heirs. She paid no gift tax becasue the GRAT was structured, so that at the time of the transfer, there was no gift.

Should I get my GRAT done before the end of the year? Well, a GRAt is an irrevocable trust. So, you should thoroughly and completely understand the GRAT before you sign and fund it. However, in the current economic environment, a GRAT can be a very powerful estate planning tool.

GRAts are complicated to set up but once you go through the process, they are fairly easy to use and to administer and the payoff to your heirs can be huge.

Since you must out live the term of the GRAt for it to work it’s magic, careful consideration should be given to how fast the GRAT should pay you back. But, once you know that the GRAt is for you, the sooner you fund it the better.

For more information on GRATs, sign up to get alerts when we post new articles.

Thank you for being a reader and please post your comments or questions below.

David Frees is an attorney who focuses his
practice on wills, trust, estate planning, and related
issues.

David Frees’ AVVO Rating 9.8 “superb”

For a consultation or phone conference call 610-933-8069
By email: dfrees@utbf.com

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