 With the tax law changes, do you need to change your estate plan?
It is a good idea to review your will and/or trust every 3 years to make sure there haven't been any law changes or family changes that require changes to your estate planning documents. The main change in the tax law that needs to be considered for estate planning purposes is the change of the estate tax exemption to 5.25 million. If you created your will or trust back when the exemption was lower, the will or trust might contain a bypass trust to the plan to use both your exemption and your spouse's exemption. With the exemption so high, this may no longer be necessary.
Read more about how the new law can affect your estate plan on Leigh's blog.
Should you include grandchildren created by assisted reproductive technology in your will or trust?
Do you want to include in the definition of grandchildren a grandchild who is conceived and born after the date of their genetic parent? Let me give you a couple of hypotheticals. What if your son is in the military and going in to combat and he has frozen sperm. He has discussed with his wife that he wants her to have his child if he doesn't make it back from combat. Do you want to include that child in the definition of grandchildren?
Another hypothetical: What if your daughter has her eggs stored and dies suddenly. She and her husband have agreed that they don't want to raise their son as an only child. Her husband through a surrogate mother has another child. Do you want to include that child in the definition of grandchildren?
Just when you thought the question was complicated enough, what if they get divorced and his ex-spouse uses the frozen genetic material to have a child. Do you want that grandchild included?
To learn more, please visit our blog.
Thank you for the referrals!
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Joanna Knieberg
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Debra Burns
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Springer/Lyle
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Terrell King
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Susan Seiter
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