while providing the same ESTATE TAX SAVINGS!!)

(You May Not Need Your A-B TRUST Arrangement Anymore)

There is FANTASTIC news to share with you.

First – Congress finally did something!

Second – What they did was give us the most favorable estate tax benefits ever.

What Congress Did

The American Taxpayer Relief Act recently enacted on January 2, 2013, calls for the continuation of a newly tested concept called “PORTABILITY”.  This allows a surviving spouse to receive any UNUSED federal estate tax exemption of the deceased spouse and ADD that amount to the surviving spouse’s own federal estate tax exemption.  The end result is that the surviving spouse may have double the estate tax protection than before.

Until the concept of “PORTABILITY” recently came about, to the extent the deceased spouse did not use his/her estate tax exemption, it was lost forever.  Not wanting to waste or lose this valuable exemption caused A-B Trusts and A-B-C Trusts to be drafted routinely and for good reason.

How Does This Benefit You

The bottom line to the New Law is that with some simple planning, there can be no estate tax on the death of the first spouse and the surviving spouse can be holding a $10,000,000 estate tax exemption (previously this would have been only $5,000,000), which for most estates means that there will be no estate tax concerns for the entire estate.  Perhaps of even greater importance, by using the concept of “PORTABILITY”, all of this estate tax planning and saving can now be achieved without having to divide the family trust into sub-trusts which were referred to as an A-B Trust or A-B-C Trust.

If you are married and have an A-B Trust (Trust with the words “Survivor’s Trust” and “Decedent’s Trust” or “Exemption Trust”) or A-B-C Trust (Trust with the same words listed above, but with the additional words “QTIP” or “Qualified Terminal Interest Trust”), drafted as part of your estate plan, you should consult with an experienced estate planning attorney to discuss your options under the new law as you may not need this type of arrangement any longer.  Your new plan could give you greater freedom and flexibility while avoiding or reducing federal estate taxation and also affording you the ability to reduce capital gains taxes.

If you are presently married (your spouse is not deceased) and have an A-B or A-B-C Trust as a part of your estate plan, you do not want this opportunity to escape your attention.  If you have questions or concerns regarding how your trust or estate plan could operate under the new law, please feel free to contact us to schedule an appointment or RSVP for our upcoming seminar.

Conejo Valley Estate Planning Attorney, Robert Triplett, is here to assist you with Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts, Revocable Living Trusts, Probate and Estate Administration, Estate Tax Planning, Asset Protection, Lifetime Benefit and Special Needs Planning in Ventura County and Los Angeles County: Agoura Hills, Agoura, Westlake Village, Oak Park, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Camarillo.

*If you lose paper files they are gone forever-  Saving and backing up your data is safer.

*Finding the physical file can sometimes be like “Where’s Waldo?”-  The data files are organized so you can always find them and find them quickly.

*The paperwork becomes voluminous creating storage nightmares-  Computer data compresses all of that paper into a small amount of space.  After the information has been scanned and stored it can be shredded for recycling.

After much reading and talking with experts, it seems like a no-brainer to go paperless.  We are not only helping ourselves with more efficient organization and no storage concerns, we are helping our environment for future generations.

If you are a client of ours, we ask that you please contact us with your e-mail address so we can communicate with you without the need for paper products.  Thank you for your assistance in our endeavor to better serve you.

Bob Triplett — I feel a little greener already!