In 2012, the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) established, for the first time, a permanent estate tax and gift tax exemption. The exemption is the amount an individual can pass on at death without paying estate taxes. The legislation set the exemption at $5 million per person, indexed for inflation. Five years later, Congress decided the exemption was not large [...]
If you’ve been gifting money each year to people you love, or using gifting as a planning tool, it’s about to get even better. In 2023, the amount you can give away takes a healthy jump and as long as your generosity doesn’t exceed the limit, you should stay off the IRS radar. In 2023 the new annual exclusion moves [...]
Woe to the person who inherits a Health Savings Account. Alhambra's Bob Williams describes the pitfalls and what to watch out for.
The Health Savings Account has been a wonderful addition to the financial landscape of people who are eligible for one. They’re often thought of as a way to pay for qualified medical expenses with pre-tax money during your working years for things like deductibles, copays, and non-covered items—in other words, things not covered by insurance. You can’t make contributions to [...]
It’s been pounded into us that having a successful retirement requires advance planning—financial planning, Social Security planning, retirement income planning, and estate planning. And now, there’s another component to be considered—planning what happens in the event you have a decline in mental capacity. The Administration for Community Living estimates there are 54.1 million Americans who are 65 years old or [...]
My, how things have changed. When I was growing up, if you found out someone had a trust, well, that person must be rich—they must be a millionaire (that’s back when a million dollars was really worth something). Today, though, trusts of all kinds are a common planning tool providing specific benefits to a multitude of situations. But boil it [...]
PROBATE—a word that strikes terror in the hearts of people planning the distribution of their estates. They worry that the probate process can drag on for months or years, that probate costs will eat up a chunk of what they want to leave their heirs, or that people will find out how the assets get distributed because probate is a [...]
Alhambra's Bob Williams describes 6 mistakes that will blow up your estate plan.
Saying you need an estate plan is like saying you need to eat your vegetables. You know it’s good for you but there are other things you’d rather do. A survey by Caring.com shows that in 2021, 25% of Americans ages 18-34 had some type of estate planning document, 22.5% ages 35-54 had a will or trust, and only 44% [...]
Alhambra's Bob Williams offers tips on being the executor of an estate.
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