Estate Planning, Probate & Elder Law Attorneys

» Love Your Business More Than Your Family
Don't let family obligations become interruptions to your business success.

» 5 Things You Need to Know About the Estate Tax in 2010: #2 (Retroactivity)

Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself -- I have been assuming that we will not have a federal estate tax for 2010. It's possible that Congress might get its act together and actually pass an estate tax bill in 2010 that applies for both 2010 and the future. This is what I've always thought would happen (naive me) -- maybe permanently setting the exemption at $3.5 million.

But this raises the question of what happens with individuals who die in 2010 before the new law, reinstating the estate tax, passes. Could such a law be made retroactive?

Probably. The Supreme Court previously stated (in Carlton v. United States, 512 U.S. 24 (1994)) that a retroactive law is valid under the Constitution if (1) the government shows that the statute has a rational legislative purpose and is not arbitrary and irrational; and (2) the period of retroactivity is "modest." (In Carlton, the "modest" period of retroactivity was 14 months.)

That being said, there is some caselaw indicating that the result might be different if the Supreme Court views this law (estate tax reboot? estate tax 2.0?) as a "wholly new" tax or as simply fixing something in an existing tax (the Carlton case mentioned above involved closing an estate tax loophole).

You may want to take a look at this article on Gideon Alpert's excellent Gay Couples Law Blog for a bit more information on this topic.

» Ivy League Endowment Meltdown
Led by Harvard, Ivy League endowments lost $27 billion last year.

» Geller Group under investigation by Labor Department
 

» The Summer Hours

The Summer Hours is a French film directed by Olivier Assayas (he also directed Irma Vep), and starring Juliette Binoche. It's also one of the few films I've ever seen address how children deal with the loss of their parent. By "deal with," I mean both how they emotionally cope with the loss, and how they try to move forward and dispose of (in this case) their mother's belongings.

The film opens with the mother (75-year-old Hélène) surrounded by her children and grandchildren. She begins to tell her oldest son, Frédéric, how to dispose of her summer home and priceless art collection after her death. Once that death occurs, Frédéric and his siblings (Jérémie and Adrienne, who is played by Ms. Binoche) have to work through what to do in light of what is practical. Can the home be kept in the family? What about the art work? What about the French estate tax?

This isn't a film about huge family disputes -- the children all act like adults, and try to work things out. It IS, however, a beautiful movie about memory, art vs. commerce, and what it means to be a family. Highly recommended.