Posts Tagged ‘probate’

Estate Planning: Beware of the Gift of Debt

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Fredrick P. Niemann, Esq., NJ Estate Administration Attorney

If you inherit property, of course you should be grateful and count your blessings. Still, consider the possibility that the gift may come with a big string attached – a debt linked to the property, such as is particularly common with real estate or a car. In that event, the question arises as to whether the debt must be satisfied from the particular asset or from the decedent’s estate more generally. How this question is answered can cause a big swing in the respective gift amounts for beneficiaries of an estate.

Historically, the law presumed that the debt was not to be paid from the property that was connected to it. The reasoning was that a true gift should not come laden with such a burden. Over time, as taking on debt became commonplace, this thinking changed and statutes flipped the conventional assumption. Increasingly, these laws start from the premise that the property left to someone includes the debt on the property, unless the decedent in his or her will clearly indicated a different intent. That is where careful estate planning, with professional guidance, comes in.

It is best to leave no doubt for the ordinary lay reader of a will. A general directive in the will to pay all debts of the testator is too nebulous. Instead, if the intent is not to keep the asset joined to the debt, language something like this should be used in a will: “If [the specific asset] is subject to a mortgage, security interest, or other lien, I direct that my executor pay the debt from other property of my estate which is not given to a specific person or entity.”

This scenario was played out recently in a case in which a farmer left to his (favored?) son three different farms, each of which was encumbered by debt. To his other son he left the residue of the estate. When the father died, the executor used part of the estate proceeds to pay off the loans to the farms, so that the first son would receive them debt-free. Not surprisingly, the second son, whose inheritance was thereby diminished, brought the matter to court.

The second son prevailed, forcing payment of the debts for the farms to come from the farms themselves. The father’s will directed in a general way that debts were to be paid from the estate. However, under the relevant state statute, that was not a sufficiently explicit indication of intent to satisfy the debts on the farms from the residu¬ary estate. In other words, the will had not clearly shown an intent that the first son was to receive the farms debt-free. As a result, the first son got the three farms, but he, not the second son, also got the responsibility for paying off the attached encumbrances, which totaled almost a quarter of a million dollars.

For further information and advice in any estate matter, do not hesitate to contact me at 888-800-7442, or info@fnlawyerinnj.com.

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LLC Ruling Favors Taxpayers

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Anna was the mother of three children and the widow of the man who invented the heart defibrillator implant.  In 1992, she created a trust for each of her daughters and gave a portion of her substantial interests in patent licenses to the trusts. In 2001, she created a limited liability company (LLC), to which she made some large transfers. She then gave a 16% interest in the LLC to each of the trusts, keeping a 52% interest to herself. Only four days later, Anna died suddenly and unexpectedly.

The IRS claimed a deficiency of millions of dollars in estate taxes. It pointed to a part of the Internal Revenue Code that provides that all property is to be included in a decedent’s estate to the extent that the decedent has transferred an interest in the property while retaining for life the possession or enjoyment of, or income from, the property. There is an exception to this general rule in cases of a bona fide sale for full and adequate consideration in money, but the IRS argued that the exception did not apply in the case of Anna’s estate.

In a somewhat surprising decision, given a recent trend favoring the IRS in such disputes, the United States Tax Court sided with the estate and kept the LLC assets out of the gross estate for estate tax purposes. The court ruled that the bona fide sale exception applied, notwithstanding that the LLC activities were not in the nature of a “business.” It was sufficient that Anna had “legitimate and significant nontax reasons” for creating and funding the LLC, including joint management of family assets, pooling family assets to maximize investment opportunities, and providing for each of her daughters on an equal basis.

Some practical lessons for minimizing estate tax liability while using family LLCs emerge from the case of Anna’s estate. They include the following:

(1) document the legitimate and significant motivations, unrelated to estate taxes, for forming such an entity; (2) continue the entity after the decedent’s death, to avoid the appearance of an ordinary trust; (3) if, as in Anna’s case, the donor dies unexpectedly a short time after the gifts, be prepared to demonstrate that the death was unexpected; and (4) keep sufficient assets outside of the entity to cover the donor’s living expenses, to avoid the possibility that the donor will treat the assets of the entity as her own. The planning, drafting, and advice associated with a family LLC entails resolution of complex issues and requires the guiding hand of a knowledgeable professional.

Federal Estate Tax
The federal estate tax credit, currently at $2 million, is set to increase to $3.5 million in 2009.  This means that in 2009 you can leave up to $3.5 million to your heirs without any federal estate tax liability.

If Congress takes no action, the federal estate tax will be repealed altogether in 2010. While this is an unlikely scenario, it does underscore the uncertainty involved in estate planning over the next few years. Make sure to meet with a professional to review your plan.

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Your New Jersey Estate Plan Review Checklist Part 1

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Your estate plan is an investment in you and your family’s future. As years pass, your family may grow, your assets will change, and new laws will be passed. We recommend all of our clients review their estate planning documents once every three to six years.

This Checklist focuses on the foundation of your estate plan, including documents such as a Last Will and Testament, Revocable Trust, General Durable Power of Attorney and Living Will. (Note that references to a “Will” on this Checklist are generally interchangeable with the term “Revocable Trust”, which can also be used as the centerpiece of an estate plan.) However, irrevocable trusts – such as a Life Insurance Trust – and other estate planning vehicles should also be reviewed periodically to see if they are performing as expected.

Below are some questions YOU should ask yourself when reviewing your existing NJ estate plan documents.  This is a three-part series.

  • Do you have a (i) Last Will and Testament, (ii) Revocable Trust, (iii) General Durable Power of Attorney (POA), and (iv) Health Care Power of Attorney/Health Care Proxy/Living Will? Every complete estate plan must contain at least three of these documents.
     
  • Have you moved to another state since you last updated your New Jersey estate planning documents? If you moved from another state to New Jersey, there may be questions of the interpretation or validity of your existing estate planning documents.Generally, estate planning documents executed in one state will be valid in another state, but your new state of residence may have specific statutes or tax laws that are not addressed in your existing estate planning documents. You may want to contact an attorney in your new state or residence to advise you as to what might need to be updated.
     
  • Do you have a separate personal property designation in your will or trust? This is a separate writing where you indicate who should receive specific items of your personal property such as photographs, jewelry, art work, etc. If you have one, you should review it and make sure that it is still an expression of your wishes. If you don’t have a personal property designation, you may want to consider creating one so that specific items will go to specific people.
     
  • Is any person receiving your estate a minor (under 18)? If so, your estate plan should make provisions for that property to be held by the minor’s Guardian or trustee under a carefully written trust until he or she attains an appropriate age.
     
  • Do you have any specific gifts or bequests you want to make? Any gift of a cash amount or of an asset other than personal property should be stated in your Will. If you have given away a specific asset to a person in your existing Will (i.e. your shore house), be sure that the asset still exists. Also, your Will should provide for what happens if the specific asset is sold during your lifetime.
     
  • Are your total combined assets, including life insurance death benefits, greater than $675,OOO? If so, there may be a New Jersey Estate Tax imposed at your death. Both Federal and New Jersey Estate Taxes can be reduced or even eliminated with appropriate estate tax planning. If you are married, both spouses’ assets should be totaled together to see if they exceed $675,000. If you have a taxable estate your estate plan should contain trusts or other provisions to reduce taxes.

Fredrick P. Niemann is managing partner at Hanlon Niemann located at 3499 Route 9 North, Freehold, NJ.  His practice focuses primarily in the areas of Elder Law, Asset and Estate Protection Planning, Medicare, Medicaid and Veteran’s Benefit Assistance. He can be reached at fniemann@hnlawfirm.com, or by calling 732-863-9900, Ext. 101.

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