A couple weeks ago on April 10, President Obama released his budget proposal for 2014. Although the proposal largely focused on areas such as military spending, education, Social Security and health care, hidden between the lines of the 244 page document were some important implications for estate planning.
Have you been tracking the budget battle storm clouds? Estate planning attorneys are keeping a wary eye cast in the direction of the President’s budget proposal. It targets a number of important estate planning techniques.
Forbes has been watching the various budget proposals with great interest and provided a helpful summary in an article titled “Obama’s Budget Proposal: The Impact On Estate Planning Tools.“
Essentially, this is a crib sheet list of the techniques presently in the crosshairs:
- High value IRAs of over $3 million
- Generation Skipping Transfer Trusts
- Dynasty Trusts
- Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs)
- Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGTs)
Click over to the article for an overview of the techniques, along with examples of their estate planning applications.
If your current estate plan already includes one or more of these techniques, then any change could impact you, your loved ones and your assets in a significant way. This would be a good time to schedule a review consultation with your own estate planning attorney.