About 6 months ago, this column covered slashing premium costs while increasing life insurance benefits. We offered to analyze the current insurance policies of readers and report back what we learned.
‘Improved' is a common addition to the labels of many store-bought products. Well, this time the product is annual gifts and improved is the perfect word.
Say your business is owned by multiple owners—for example, two or more brothers and/or sisters; or cousins; or aunts/uncles; or two or more unrelated (by blood or marriage) owners; or any combination of the foregoing. Assume the business has prospered, and so have the owners.
The economic downturn has heightened the concern of readers who already have life insurance but are having difficulty continuing premium payments. The same concern—high premium costs—confronts readers who need (or want) new policies.
Ready? Everybody on their feet for a standing ovation for the IRS. For my entire professional life—50 years—I have been convinced that the guys who write IRS regulations have only two buttons: complex and more complex.
Your estate plan is not finished unless you pass the "test. " To do so, you must answer yes to two questions: 1) Does my estate plan transfer ALL of my wealth to my heirs, with all taxes, if any, paid in full? 2) Can I control all of my assets for as long as I live? If you don't get a clear "yes" to both questions, you need a second opinion.
Regular readers of this column know my modus operandi: Discover the tax secrets of the wealthy and then adapt those secrets to the family business owner. As a member of a network of professionals, I regularly run across exciting new tax-saving strategies and wealth building techniques.
About six months ago I wrote about a little-known tax law that allows you to get all the benefits of long-term care insurance (LTC) for free. Readers bombarded me seeking more information and asking questions.
There is so much to say about the new estate tax law, that perhaps the best way to say it is to begin with what others say.
The "Conventional Wisdom" column in the June 11, 2001, issue of Newsweek: "What a weird tax law.
