Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) introduced the Taxpayer Certainty and Relief Act of 2009 on March 26, 2009. The tax bill includes a $2.3 trillion middle class tax cut package and also creates a freeze on estate tax rates and major estate planning modifications. Read Greg Herman-Giddens blog post about it here. In… Read More
Thank you to Julie Garber of Julie’s Wills and Estate Planning Blog for her post alerting us to this NYT article: Julie writes: “Taxes Not Seen as Making the Rich Flee New York, so states an article by Nicholas Confessore that appeared last week in The New York Times. It seems that lawmakers in Albany… Read More
A family caregiver agreement, sometimes referred to as a personal care contract or personal service contract, is a written contract between a parent and child (or some other family member) in which the child agrees to care for an elderly parent for a specified amount of money. For an aging parent, the idea of being… Read More
Perhaps there are secrets we should take to the grave, but computer passwords are not among them. An increasing amount of critical personal and work-related information is stored on computers instead of in file cabinets. Many people are revising their estate plans to include complete lists of online accounts and passwords. As Liz Pulliam Weston… Read More
“Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the Virtues of Man, without his Vices. This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery if inscribed over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the Memory of Boatswain, a Dog.” Lord Byron… Read More
Thank you to Grant Griffiths for his suggestion for this post. We appreciate your visits to Pennsylvania Trusts and Estates. While many of you are stopping by to read the new post we have published, you may be missing out on what else we have to offer. 1. Don’t forget about the search box If… Read More
There is some talk from PA state legislators about repealing the PA inheritance tax. See Neil Hendershot’s blog post here. ACTEC (American College of Trust and Estate Counsel) maintains a chart showing the death taxes in all 50 states: 2009 State Death Tax Chart. States with death taxes are in the minority, but not overwhelmingly… Read More