Davis O'Sullivan &
Priest LLC
59 Elm Street
Suite 540
New Haven, CT
06510
203-776-4400
Fax: 203-774-1060

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the informational website of
Lisa Nachmias Davis
Davis O'Sullivan & Priest LLC - Attorneys at Law

Elder Law, Estate Planning & Probate,  Nonprofit Organizations




ESTATE PLANNING AND PROBATE

(last updated December 20, 2019; reviewed 2022!)

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(12/20/19) - SECURE ACT passes -- enormous changes to the rules governing inherited retirement accounts, and an effective massive "inheritance tax" on the beneficiaries of these accounts, often children of professionals and academics.  Clients whose "savings" are concentrated in retirement accounts should seek immediate financial advice and possibly purchase life insurance, since their heirs may lose nearly half the value of a large account to income taxes. The new law requires accounts inherited after 1/1/2020 in most cases to be distributed in full within ten years of death, whereas prior law allowed payout to be "stretched" over the recipient's lifetime, effectively creating a way to cover the retirement expenses of the beneficiary. Since most beneficiaries would have been younger than the owner, with a life expectancy of 20+ years, this doubles the payout schedule and due to bunching of the distributions, will cause the account payouts to be subject to much higher income taxes. In Connecticut, this could result in a 40% haircut on the account value. (By contrast, the real estate developer's child can inherit property that includes deferred gain, and will get a full step-up in basis on death and no estate tax or income tax to pay, provided the estate is within the exclusion limits, currently over 11 million federally.)  Further problems may arise for trusts designed to protect these accounts.  Trusts pay the highest tax rate of 37% on income over approx. $13,450.  To avoid this high rate of tax, the trust document or the trustee may feel compelled to pay the money out to the beneficiary, preventing the funds from being protected against the beneficiary's creditors.    While these draconian rules may not apply to some special needs trusts, and trusts for minor children get a little more than the 10 years, these exceptions definitely don't cover every situation.  The law is new, so stay tuned for further updates.  Proposed regulations were issued in 2022, but the final regulations may be different.

(2019) Connecticut adopts UNIFORM TRUST CODE with many changes to centuries of trust law -- including some changes that even apply to already existing irrevocable trusts.  To limit financial information that must be disclosed to remainder beneficiaries, to remove the default requirement for annual Trust Reports, to narrow the opportunities for trustees and beneficiaries to collude to change a trust you created after you are dead and gone -- it's essential to consult with an attorney ASAP.  On the plus side, the new law allows beneficiaries and trustees to adapt to changes, to appoint successor trustees without court involvement, allows settlors to create "dynasty" trusts that will go on for 800 years as well as domestic asset protection trusts, allows "directed" trusts so that the job of managing money and deciding on distributions can be divided up and decisions made by non-trustees, and offers clarity (if not comfort) to trustees with respect to the statute of limitations. And if you are a beneficiary, you may have new rights or at least easier ways to enforce them.  If your attorney seems tired and stressed this year (written in 2019, still true in 2022) that's because she is taking multiple continuing education courses, revising all her forms, and agonizing about how to cope with these changes!

(revised 2022):  The Most Regressive Death Tax by Another Name - Connecticut's Probate Fee.  They won't call it a "tax" because they'd have to admit it is a tax that is a real death tax -- it applies to EVERYONE who dies in Connecticut, even someone who dies homeless and penniless.  It's the "probate fee" that is delivered to the probate court where the person resided at death, and which is imposed when the CT estate tax return is due -- six months after death.  The check is even made out to "Treasurer, State of Connecticut."  "But my estate is too small for a CT estate tax -- this won't apply to me, will it?"  Sure it will.  The CT estate tax return for "non-taxable" estates must be filed within six months of death. If it is not filed, INTEREST ACCRUES ON THE TAX THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN ASSESSED WHEN IT WAS TIMELY FILED -- at 0.5% per month.  "But if I avoid probate, I avoid the probate fee, right?"  WRONG.  Imagine joint bank accounts of $50,000, a life insurance policy of $25,000, and a retirement account of $25,000.  Even with no probate, the CT Estate tax return for non-taxable estates must be filed within six months, reporting assets of $100,000 -- and a "fee" of $465 is due, payable within thirty days.  (OK, short extensions are now permitted if you ask and use the right form.)  Suppose nobody files the return, and a year passes.  If my computations are right, the recipients will owe over $30 in interest.  The only exception to the late filing interest:  estates of $40,000 or less (or $500,000 and some passes to a surviving spouse).  That's an exemption for the interest -- not for the death tax, oops, I meant to say, probate fee.  For more details, here's what the Probate Courts have to say about it.  So -- since the only way to "avoid" the probate fee is to avoid dying a Connecticut resident (unless your heirs you break the law), in Connecticut you pay a fee for dying.  As the Beatles joke, "Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes." Signed, someone who supports the Buffett Rule.  Honestly.  Poor widows, indigent orphans should not have to pay a tax just to DIE.  Explain this to your legislator, I'm tired of explaining it to my clients!  See my article: "When Somebody Dies in Connecticut:  PAPERWORK" if you want to do this o your own.  Please go to change.org and look for the petition "end the widow tax."

And while I am griping.  So why do the widows and orphans still have to pay this miserable probate fee, but the multi-millionaires are paying nothing at all?  My very nice wealthy clients were so embarrassed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which doubled the federal estate tax exemption to $12.06 MILLION per person ($24.12 million if married) they took pains to tell me they were not supporting it.  And the State of CT raised the exemption so that in 2022 it is now 9.1 million!  Don't get me wrong, I don't like paying taxes any more than the next person, but how is this fair, when our country is in debt, our roads and bridges are falling down, and we don't have enough mental health services?  The only good thing that can be said is that now clients will not be doing trusts just to save taxes, but only if the trust is really worthwhile for other reasons.  By the way, bad things (from a tax perspective, not policy) in the Act included raising the "kiddee tax" paid when a minor child has unearned income; getting rid of the tax deduction for alimony; getting rid of the miscellaneous deductions subject to a 2% floor, such as union dues, employment expenses and pass-through deductions from estates; and keeping the high, high taxes paid by trusts and estates.

1/1/11 (ANCIENT HISTORY NOW, BUT WITH COMMENTS):  What was this "Tax Compromise" anyway?  I'm sure you can read countless explanations of the eleventh-hour tax legislation at the end of 2010.   Here are a few estate tax highlights that may matter to YOU:

  • Federal estate tax came BACK:  retroactive to 1/1/2010, federal estate tax, which had been repealed, again became due if a person with more than $5 million leaves that money to anyone other than a spouse or a charity (certain special trust exceptions apply).  This is "estate tax," not a "death tax" -- everybody dies -- not everybody has an "estate" that can be taxed!   (There are exceptions to prevent a Constitutional argument by the executors of billionaires who died in 2010.)  And by 2022, that $5 million was doubled in 2017 and is now up to $12.06 million (2022).
  • If a person leaves, gasp, $12.06 million to his/her spouse (2022 number), his/her spouse can actually pass on $24.12 million without estate tax.  This is known as "portability."  (The figures will go back to 5-7 million or whatever it is with inflation, in 2026.)  Translation:  if you live in a state with no STATE estate tax, you might not need those pesky "bypass" or "credit shelter trusts" to avoid "wasting" each spouse's exemption!  CATCH:  when spouse #1 dies, a federal estate tax return must be filed -- something everyone may forget.  Catch #2 -- if the spouse remarries the "deceased spouse unused exemption amount" is lost.
  • If estate tax is due, the rate will be 35%.  This is a lot less than it was before the 2010 legislation.  The pre-2001 tax "credit" was replaced by a deduction.
  • Starting in 2011, the exemption is the same for assets that pass at death or during your lifetime. 
  • You may not even know that in 2010 the "step up" in basis was lost and now is back -- that is what prevents your heirs paying capital gains tax when they sell the house, stock, etc. they inherited.  The "step up" means that inherited property is treated as if your heirs bought it at the value it held on your death, and when the property is sold, your heirs only pay tax on the appreciation since your death.
But if you live in Connecticut .... while you now (2022) get a $9.1 million exclusion, there is no portability.

  (2011) Update on Retirement Plans. The tax reform bill does allow tax exemption on distributions (other than required minimum distributions) from IRAs that go entirely to a charity.  No deduction, but tax exemption, which amounts to a 100% deduction.  This doesn't apply to gifts used to purchase charitable gift annuities. And it doesn't apply if the money comes from a retirement plan; you'd have to roll it out to an IRA first. Reminders:  any beneficiary, not only a spouse, may have the right to "roll out" an inherited IRA or interest in a retirement plan, to his or her own IRA, choosing the account custodian and the successor beneficiaries.   Recurring problems, however:  CHECK YOUR BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS frequently.  Custodians have been known to change them without notice, to ignore additional beneficiaries, and to reinstate expired beneficiary designations.   And one more thing -- if you have to draw down retirement accounts to pay medical bills, remember that Connecticut does NOT have a medical expense deduction against the Connecticut income tax. (It does, however, have a waiver of tax (PDF) for persons who received Medicaid assistance to pay for long-term care in a nursing home or at home, and who are unable to pay taxes.) (If this doesn't open or has a prior year on it, paste the link in your browser and change the year reference to the applicable year. Or search the DSS site for Form 19IT.)

(2008)  Med-Ed:  Even with an economic downturn, there are still plenty of folks worried about the gift tax.  Read my article "summarizing" the long-standing tax rule exempting from the whole gift and estate tax regime any direct payment of someone else's tuition or medical care expenses -- the "med-ed" deduction.  (By 2022, fewer people care about the gift tax!)

In case you have been sleeping for, gulp, 18 years.....Connecticut Gift Tax Repealed (until you hit the lifetime/at death exemption that in 2022, is $9.1 million million)!  Effective 1/1/2005, Connecticut's legislature repealed the gift tax for lifetime gifts totally up to the estate tax exemption amount.  Since there is no penalty for failure to file a gift tax return when no tax is due, this will relieve many people from the need to file.  Connecticut was formerly the only state that had a gift tax that operated separately from its estate tax.  For gifts over the lifetime/death exemption, the net is taxed.

 How to Administer a Life Insurance Trust.  In these uncertain times, we don't know whether or not there will be more or less estate tax in the future.  Life insurance trusts are still relevant:  (1) for those who fear future increases in state or federal estate tax; (2) for those who want to protect assets from creditors that may turn up at your death; and even (3) for those who want to "leverage" a gift to heirs that will be protected against long-term care expenses.  And since 2020:  whose heirs will now pay accelerated income taxes on inherited retirement accounts (maybe 40% if in trust).  These trusts often include as a feature the requirement that notices be sent to beneficiaries annually in order to escape inclusion in the total gifts made during life.  Here is help for those of you named as Trustees of "life insurance trusts" but unwilling to fork over the fee your attorney or accountant charges to handle the procedures required to get the right tax result.  Little do you know that the fee may still represent a loss to your attorney!  Click HERE for instructions and a sample notice form. 

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The following is my statement of principles regarding the practice of estate planning.  I first started writing them in 1997, concerned that the desire to minimize taxes was the only concern given attention by estate planning attorneys. You may also want to look at the pages dealing with planning for the elderly and planning for the disabled, which focus more on entitlement benefits, another part of estate planning for those types of clients.  Another page, living trusts, sets out the pros and cons of this popular, but sometimes abused device. 

What Is Estate Planning?

This is a particularly good question in light of the scaling back of a good portion of our estate tax laws.  However, the core human issues remain the same.  "What if something happens to me?"  The need to plan for the care of family members and the distribution of one's property when we have left this mortal coil is a basic human instinct.  The desire to minimize taxes payable as a result of death has been and should be only a secondary concern, an aspect of our desire to control our own property (because we can never control our own death).  Even with the sky-high estate tax exemptions, there will still be taxes to plan for, but with this much uncertainty estate planning must emphasize human, not accounting concerns.  Who will care for the vulnerable people we love and will leave behind? How can -- and should -- our assets protect and help them?  Whom do we trust to carry out the chores that are created by our passing, or to administer the plans we set in motion?  We want our worldly goods to benefit the people we love and the causes we care about -- how can that be accomplished most effectively?

For further information on the estate planning process, email your question to me (use the link at left) or write to me at the address shown.  I cannot, however, give specific advice about specific situations without taking you on as a client; writing to me does not create an attorney-client relationship.  DO NOT disclose confidential information to me.

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DISCLAIMER:
THIS INFORMATION IS NOT PROVIDED AS  LEGAL ADVICE AND CREATES NO ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP.  NO ENDORSEMENT IS INTENDED BY ANY REFERENCES HEREIN.  PLEASE CONSULT YOUR OWN LEGAL AND FINANCIAL ADVISORS BEFORE TAKING ANY ACTION.  In compliance with regulations issued by the Internal Revenue Service, please be advised that nothing on this webpage was written to be used or may be used by any person to avoid any penalties under the Internal Revenue Code.
 

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Lisa Nachmias Davis
Davis O'Sullivan & Priest LLC
59 Elm Street, Suite 540
New Haven, CT 06510
Phone: 203-776-4400
Fax: 203-774-1060