On October 14, 2016 Gov. Christie executed a new law that states New Jersey decedents who die during 2017 will not be subject to New Jersey estate tax unless their taxable estates are greater than $2,000,000. Thereafter, beginning with deaths occurring on January 1, 2018, the New Jersey estate tax is repealed. Those New Jersey

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Modest estates: New tax planning considerations The landscape has changed for estate planning in the past several years since the gift and estate tax was set at 40% and the lifetime exemption was upped to $5,450,000 in 2016. Now many modest estates will have either no estate tax or a very nominal estate tax, therefore,

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“Probate” is the process of identifying and gathering a decedent’s assets, paying taxes, claims and expenses, distributing assets to beneficiaries and the wrapping up of a decedent’s affairs in a court supervised setting. Probate provides a means for those interested to make any claims, valid or invalid, in a fair structured process. Properly followed, it

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The IRS recently announced the inflation-adjusted items for 2016, including gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax amounts. The following adjustments should be considered in your estate and gift planning: • The gift tax annual exclusion for 2016 remains $14,000 (and is increased to $148,000 for gifts to a non-U.S. citizen spouse). Married couples who elect

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Senate bill S2899 has been introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would establish the federal estate tax rate to be 40% on all estates worth $3,500,000 but less than $10,000,000, and 50% on all estates in excess of $10,000,000 but less than $50,000,000. Thereafter the estate tax rate would be 55% on estates in

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While many people are postponing updating their estate planning documents until there is a little more certainty about the next estate tax law effective January 1st, 2013, a person should still continue to update his or her existing estate planning documents. Also, waiting for the Congress to determine how it wants to set the estate

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If you have residences in more than one state, it is important to determine in which state you wish to establish your legal domicile. Your choice of domicile carries with it various important consequences. For example, domicile often determines jurisdiction to (i) assess state income and death taxes, (ii) probate wills and administer estates, and

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