Question: My wife and I live in the great state of Massachusetts and have each funded our own individual credit shelter trusts for $1 million. Beyond that we have about $500,000 in a joint bank [...]

Question: My husband passed away. I owned stocks in only my name. Are the stocks part of his estate? Response: No. What’s yours is yours and what was his is in his estate. In terms of [...]

Question: I have recently retired and moved from Massachusetts to Florida, though I have kept my condominium in Massachusetts.  I keep hearing “domicile” stories at cocktail parties. [...]

Question: If we have QTIP trusts in our joint revocable trust to protect a surviving spouse from a second marriage gold digger or second marriage divorce, can the surviving spouse serve as the [...]

Question: Wife transfers her 50% interest in their house to husband’s revocable trust. Husband dies and 100% of house owned by credit trust in H’s trust of which W is beneficiary. When W dies,  [...]

Question: I’m going to make a gift to my daughter (over the current Federal annual gift tax exclusion amount). Is this considered a direct gift or a direct skip when I report the gift on my [...]

Question: Our assets are in a revocable living trust. These assets include stock mutual funds, among other assets. When the last of us dies, is there a step-up in cost basis to that date of death [...]

Question: How can someone, with a house, a rental house and investments altogether worth $4 million, plan for both a stepped-up in basis and the full federal estate tax exemption without allowing [...]

Question: A decedent has savings bonds unredeemed (final maturity 2030) that have just the decedent’s name only on the bond with no named beneficiary. The total redemption value of the [...]

Question: The beneficiaries want our trustee to petition the probate court to dissolve an irrevocable trust in Texas because we believe it has served it purpose. The trustee would agree. I read [...]