Bogleheads.org

All I know about this topic is that a US citizen is taxed on worldwide income. I believe the exemption, or deferral, you refer to relates to foreign subsidiaries of US corporations, when earnings are accumulated within the subsidiary and not paid out to the parent company.
Bruce

Firms that provide this service of acting as trustee or executor are called trust companies, or banking institutions which have trust powers to act in this capacity. Only these firms that are chartered in this way by a state or the Federal Comptroller of the Currency can act in this role.
Bruce

You should be able to obtain a sample estate accounting in your estate. Basically, you have schedules for property received, disbursed & on hand along with a proposed distribution schedule. Normally principal and income are kept separate
Bruce

After posting here and on Morningstar since August 1999, the partial deletion of my post makes it quite clear I no longer serve a purpose on this forum. JDCPAEsq and I are both attorney/CPA's and it's time for me to follow him out the Boglehead's exit door. I've received many PM's expressing gratitu...

I don't see why it wouldn't work, although you need to be careful of the Step Transaction Doctrine, i.e., if it is obvious what you are doing the IRS can treat the transaction as if you gave directly to the church. [Suggestion on how to avoid an IRS audit removed by admin LadyGeek]
Bruce

I don't see where the SS number has anything to do with ownership and the broker can't refuse transfer of the account on this basis. Does the POA extend to her role as custodian under the UGMA accounts? Also, do you know when a UGMA account terminates in your state? If the children have reached the ...

Bruce - Can't he file a 1041 for 2012 and claim that as the final return for the estate, thereby passing out the excess deductions to himself? In answer to your question about the lawyer discussing it, in my years with corporate fiduciaries my impression always was that most lawyers gave no attentio...

How are you using the term "grantee"? It usually means one to whom real estate is conveyed or one to whom a grant is given such as from a donor advised fund. I don't understand your question.
Bruce

kitteh wrote:

goldbug wrote: there is a trust/ investment entity that receives 1% annually.

I don't know what this means.

Trustee fees
Bruce

I just wanted to provide a follow up post. I asked an attorney to review the Will and Revocable Trust documents I cobbled together from older documents and a friend's document. She returned it with more red ink than I have seen on a paper since junior high. I told her to incinerate my old documents...

I can't imagine a reason for overpaying Federal taxes to receive a refund that size. One reason folks do it (not me) is for credit card rewards. If you have say a 5% cashback credit card and you have to pay 2.5% in fees to pay your estimated taxes on said rewards card, you clear 2.5% of 40,000 in t...

No big deal. I must receive several of these every week with a similar message. Just hit the delete button.
Bruce

You can take it from either or both funds. Like any other investment, you're better off selling high rather than selling low. However, if you reinvest the RMD in the same funds from which it came it would make no difference.
Bruce

I can't imagine a reason for overpaying Federal taxes to receive a refund that size. You can be fairly sure that triggered the audit. I'd just as soon not call attention to my return, however accurate, by having a huge refund.
Bruce

Rick Ferri wrote:No Central Banks will not let that happen, including ours.

I don't follow your double negative. What do you mean exactly?
Bruce

Penguin wrote (immediately above): "They then found out that it was possible to reverse the irrevocable trust!" How was this done? Can an irrevocable trust be reversed in any state? What is the process? I'm a little rusty on this question, but I know there are instances when an irrevocabl...

Not sure why the distributions of corpus (trust principal) out of the trust would be taxable to the beneficiary. Wouldn't the funds put into the trust have been covered by a lifetime gift tax exclusion? Gift tax exemptions have nothing to do with it. Distributions of principal would only be taxable...

You might ask the teacher how it affects your asset allocation.
Bruce

Not sure why the distributions of corpus (trust principal) out of the trust would be taxable to the beneficiary. Wouldn't the funds put into the trust have been covered by a lifetime gift tax exclusion? Gift tax exemptions have nothing to do with it. Distributions of principal would only be taxable...

OP, are you saying that this 90 year old set up a trust so that he/she could become impoverished (Medicaid requires that) and thus qualify for a Medicaid facility instead of leaving the possibility for privately paying for a superior facility? Why would younger people allow him/her to do that? And ...

sscritic wrote:

MBMiner wrote:If you are your parents

I am still working on this. I will get back to you once I decide whether this is legal or biologically possible.

Good catch, sscritic! I guess I can't watch basketball and type at the same time.
Bruce

If you and your parents consider it "reimbursing" for expenses previously advanced by your parents, it is not even a gift. Write the check and forget about it. No need to file anything.
Bruce

It appears that the trust won't be of a long duration before it terminates. I would invest quite conservatively, perhaps a 20/80 equity/fixed income. The remaindermen may have differing investment objectives and therefore they can invest as they see fit upon termination.
Bruce

Depends on the purpose of the trust, the ages and need of the income beneficiaries and the disposition of the trust upon the death of the grantor. Are you sure this is irrevocable? Impossible to give you a simple answer.
Bruce

livesoft wrote:In any event, bman's advisor appears to be no different from advisors who post often on the forum that many folks recommend.

Excellent point, Livesoft. Why is the OP's advisor considered evil and not those to whom you refer?
Bruce

Read through a power-of-attorney form and a health care proxy you will see that they cover much more than can be covered by joint property and such. Yes, you need both.
Bruce

I think you need to narrow your question down a bit. All of us who have retired have gone through this thought process and we all have had different objectives. There is no way for us to know what you should do without more information. I live in a house twice the size of the one I had when I retire...

It appears there are still assets in the subtrusts. Therefore a 1041 should be filed for each trust by the trustee and a K-1 issued to the beneficiary. The return should be quite simple. It's difficult to answer the question about the failure to file for the parent trust. It's possible there was no ...

Could you clarify #8 re bypassing the sub trusts. Did the trustee ignore the terms of the trust?
Bruce

Show the seller the Edmunds' figures.
Bruce

Makes sense. I've wondered why they continued it this long.
Bruce

I agree. Having spent my career in the trust industry, it was a very sad day for all of us to see the fine institution of US Trust taken over by B of A. No one in the business could imagine a worse marriage of two totally incompatible firms. US Trust was a leader in the trust business, but sadly no ...

You said in another post you're Canadian living in the US. Why don't you just open an account in a Canadian bank? Last Fall you were trying to get rid of $40 CDN.
Bruce

You will pay the retail exchange rate on smaller amounts. There are banks in the US that maintain deposit accounts in foreign currencies so there is no need to go out of the country for this purpose.
Bruce

The IRS has a few things to say about your plan - known as the Generation Skipping tax designed to prevent just such "endowments" or the passing on of perpetual trusts.
Bruce

Probably because you're intelligent enough and careful enough with your money that you realize it is something you really don't need. I spent $175 on a watch while on a cruise two years ago and now realize I didn't really even need that. Being retired I rarely have need for any kind of watch.
Bruce

Cheap_rookie wrote:Why not just make a codicil? and not replace the valid will?

The OP says he is in the process of rewriting his will and estate plan. Codicils are OK for minor changes but generally not advisable for extensive changes.
Bruce

What about your income taxes? You said the $120K was after tax. You're probably looking at at least $25,000 in income tax.
Bruce

If the new one is declared invalid, wouldn't the old one prevail? Not usually. Here's the law of one state: If, after the making of any will, the testator shall duly make and execute a second will, the destruction, canceling or revocation of such second will shall not revive the first will, unless ...

wesleymouch wrote:Most newer frigs have an annual electricity cost of circa $55 dollars. Let it run

Less than $5 a month? I find that hard to believe. That would be about 38 kw. where I live.
Bruce

The biggest risk in preparing your own will is that it could be invalid. That means you're dead and your property passes by your state's laws of intestacy. Do you want to risk that?
Bruce

You cannot deduct fees applicable to the production of tax exempt income which generally would apply to a portfolio of municipal bonds.
Bruce

Federal Reserve Bank.
Bruce

The key is whether the trust was included in father-in-law's estate for estate tax purposes. In that case the basis would be stepped up to the value on his date of death. If not, the basis would be the grantor's cost of original assets or the actual cost to the trust of securities purchased in the t...

Probably not, as the bank statement will be sufficient proof of your payments. However, you should develop the habit of saving any documents relating to your income tax for at least six years.
Bruce

Sam I Am wrote:Am I remembering correctly, wasn't it possible at one time to deduct the interest paid on 401k loans?

I thought I had the ability to do that, until some loopholes were plugged.

Sam I Am

Yes, once upon a time you could deduct all interest and most taxes. No more.
Bruce

nisiprius wrote:Assuming you had the money to pay the fee, if it had been paid automatically out of your investments there would not have been anything stopping you from sending in an amount of money equal to the fee to be invested.

Not in an IRA if you have already contributed the maximum.
Bruce

And it also is tax deductible if you exceed the 2% threshold.
Bruce

My experience at the Ritz-Carlton is that you pay for anything additional, even tipping the attendant to get a towel at the pool. The services and dining are wonderful but it all comes at a price.
Bruce.

After reading all this it confirmed my decision many years ago to enter the trust banking field as a lawyer. Most of my classmates at one of the top law schools aspired to join Biglaw in NYC (the term didn't exist in the '60's). In spite of being admitted in New York, I opted to enter the trust fiel...