Estate Planning, Probate & Elder Law Attorneys

» 2008 Year-End Gifting Made Easy

One of my most well-received posts was this one, on "year-end gifting made easy."

Evidently the Federal Taxes Weekly Alert has calculated that the gift tax annual exclusion will go from $12,000 (right now) to $13,000 in 2009. Based on this, it seems like time for an update:

Next year the annual gift tax exclusion will increase from $12,000 to $13,000. The gift tax exclusion is the amount that you can give to as many people as you wish, per year, without paying gift tax or even needing to file a gift tax return.

If you are in a situation where you'd like to make gifts, the end of the year (and the start of the next year) is a good time to do it. Three quick, easy scenarios:

1. You and your spouse have three grown children. (Each child is married and has one child of his or her own.) You and your spouse each give $12,000 to each child on December 31, 2008 and $13,000 to each child on January 1, 2009. You have just given away $150,000 without having to pay gift tax or even file a return.

2. Same facts as in 1., but you also make the same gifts to each child's spouse. That's another $150,000 that you've given away without having to pay gift tax or even file a return.

3. Same facts as in 2., but you also make the same gifts to your three grandchildren. That's another $150,000 that you've given away without having to pay gift tax or even file a return.

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» Stock Certificates and Probate

One of the things that I emphasize as an estate planner is "making things easy" for the people who will ultimately handle your estate, by getting yourself organized. That saves them a lot of aggravation, and will also save your estate a fair amount of money, as no one will need to pay an attorney $200+ per hour to figure out how many bank accounts you had, or whether you executed a Will.

Columnist Christopher Yugo espouses the same philosophy in this Q&A regarding stock certificates. As a probate attorney, stock certificates are a real nuisance (and it sounds like Mr. Yugo has had the same experience). The best approach is to set up a brokerage account, and let an investment professional take care of fulfilling all necessary transfer agent requirements.

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