Practical Guide to Estate Planning provides a clean overview of estate planning, offering the widest variety of discussion on planning principles and tools from the simple to the sophisticated. This book is not lacking in detail, witnessed by its well-annotated collection of forms that will appeal to many experienced estate planners. The layout of this book reflects its emphasis on simplicity and clarity. It is divided into four major sections, the first of which provides a general view of the estate planning process.

The second section of the 2008 Edition of Practical Guide to Estate Planning addresses the rules involved in estate planning and the various ways in which estates may be structured to achieve desired tax effects. The third section explores some of the more specialized areas of estate planning, including generation-skipping transfer tax rules and charitable planning, including the use of private foundations and split-interest trusts. The last section contains a set of estate planning forms. Included are a pour-over will, a revocable trust, a minor's trust, a Crummey trust, a life insurance trust, a durable power of attorney, a health care proxy and an unannotated qualified personal residence trust (QPRT). The authors provide alternative drafting options as well as comprehensive annotations that can be used as quick references that explain why and how these devices operate.

This reference, with its wealth of basic information as well as its impressive assortment of forms and supporting materials, offers something of interest for everyone. Its clarity and clean organization, augmented by well-constructed examples, practice tips, diagrams and charts, make it a work that will be useful to both the newcomer and the experienced practitioner in the field.

The 2008 Edition covers the legislative, regulatory and judicial developments that are of most importance to estate planners, bringing you up to date in this constantly changing area.

Benefits and Features

Highlights Include Coverage Of:

• Proposed regulations that would change the tax consequences of a sale of property in exchange for a private annuity
• Income tax "trap for the unwary" where a business (family-owned or not) owns life insurance on an employee (included in the Pension Protection Act of 2006)
• Update on estate tax reporting requirements for sales to GST trusts
• Explanation of the estate planning implications of the changing legal landscape for same-sex couples, including marriage in Massachusetts and quasi-marital protection in California, Hawaii, New Jersey and Vermont, as well as the most recent changes in New Hampshire and Oregon
• A new section on long-term care insurance
• Substantial changes reflecting the Pension Protection Act of 2006, including new rules for donor-advised funds, supporting organizations, and private foundations
• Addition of a new section discussiong provisions under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 concerning non-spousal rollovers from quaified retirement plans
• Changes to income limits for eligibility to make contributions to a Roth IRA, which were indexed for inflation for the first time in 2007
• Discussion of the provision of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that allows for direct rollovers from a quailfied retirement plan to a Roth IRA beginning in 2008
• Companion CD-ROM of the forms both with and without the annotations. 

Topics and Contents

The Estate Planning Process

Basic Rules of Property Transfers Upon Death

Basic Estate Planning Documents

Trust Basics

Estate and Gift Tax Basics: Tax Tools of the Estate Planner

Planning for Spouse or Nonmarital Partner

Issues in Planning for Children

Using Gifts in Estate Planning

Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Planning

Charitable Giving

Planning for a Closely Held Business Interest

Life Insurance

Estate Planning With Retirement Benefits

Postmortem Estate Planning

Form 1 Living Trust

Form 2 Living Trust Amendment

Form 3 Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust

Form 4 Annual Exclusion Trust

Form 5 Additional Annual Exclusion Trust

Form 6 Will With Pour-Over Provision

Form 7 Will With Outright Dispositions

Form 8 Codicil

Form 9 Durable Power of Attorney

Form 10 Health Care Proxy

Form 11 Living Will

Form 12 Charitable Remainder Unitrust

Form 13 Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT)

Index