Wealth Preservation, Trusts and Estates

Avoid Probate With A Revocable Living Trust In Pennsylvania (PA). I want to remind everyone to consider a combination of a pour over will and revocable living trust to help avoid probate for your estate. Read here to learn more about the mechanics of a revocable living trust. There are many people who choose to use a revocable living trust because they want to save some time and expense for their beneficiaries by avoiding probate.  Here is a great link to David Frees, Esquire’s review of the probate avoidance debate.  The will and trust themselves are only the first step, you must also properly title all of your assets into the name of the revocable trust during your lifetime in order to fully avoid probate. We often work with clients to prepare the pour over will, revocable living trust and also to retitle bank accounts, stock accounts, real estate and other assets into the revocable trust name. This is likely to have a higher upfront cost for the consumer, but it will likely serve to provide a savings of time and money for the beneficiaries of an estate. The revocable living trust is not an estate planning tool for everyone and it certainly makes more sense for some than others. Using a will alone or a will and a revocable trust is a personal choice that clients make when deciding the best way to accomplish their family estate planning goals. Read here to learn more about the revocable living trust pros and cons.
Please feel free to contact Douglas L. Kaune, Esquire any time at 610-933-8069 or dkaune@utbf.com to discuss your particular estate plan and determine if the revocable living trust is right for you.
Wills * Trusts * Elder Law * Probate * Asset Protection * Power of Attorney * Estate Planning
Malvern, Phoenixville, West Chester Offices Chester County Montgomery County, Delaware County, Bucks County, Berks County, Philadelphia County Law Practice Locations.

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The Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT) is an imortant estate planning option for married couples composed of at least one non U.S. citizen. The United States federal estate tax laws are very different as they relate to a surviving spouse who is not a U.S. citizen compared to a citizen spouse. In particular the surving non-citizen spouse in not given an unlimited marital deduction for assets passing from his or her spouse at death. Therefore, some portion of the assets left to the surviving non citizen spouse could be subjected to a federal estate tax at rates in excess of 40%. The QDOT is one estate planning tool used to defer the estate tax owed by the non-citizen surviving spouse. The QDOT can be created under a last will and testament, a revocable living trust or as a stand alone trust. Transfers made at death to a QDOT for the benefit of a non-citizen spouse will qualify for the marital deduction and will not be taxed at that time. The creation of the trust mechanism is not sufficient and must be coupled with prudent lifetime planning and asset titling. Read here for additional information on the international estate planning issues generally.
To add to the complexity of this issue, the overall U.S. federal estate tax system is unsettled. As we have discussed on numerous occasions on this site, the federal estate tax was technically repealed on January 1 2010 but there is extensive discussion of the estate tax being reinstituted by Congress retroactively to January 1, 2010. We will continue to address other estate planning concerns of non-U.S. citizens and U.S. citizens alike in later Blog entries.
Please feel free to contact us any time at 610-933-8069 or dkaune@utbf.com to discuss your particular circumstances to determine the appropriate planning options for you.
Wills * Trusts * Elder Law * Probate * Asset Protection * Power of Attorney * Estate Planning
Malvern, Phoenixville, West Chester Offices Chester County Montgomery County, Delaware County, Bucks County, Berks County, Philadelphia County Law Practice Locations.

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