Bill (not an actual client, but similar to one) was widowed when his wife of many years died, and it was necessary to attend to a variety of estate planning, gifting, and investment issues.
Our Service: It was a challenging time for Bill when his wife died, and so we supported him both personally and with his finances:
- We worked with Bill’s estate attorney to fully understand the provisions of their trust. In fact, we did most of this work before his wife died.
- We worked with Bill's CPA to complete the estate tax return (IRS form 706) was accurate and filed in a timely fashion.
- We set up the marital trust and the bypass trust that was mandated by the estate plan, and funded it with the required assets. The trusts pay income to Bill, and the assets will go to Bill’s children when Bill dies. We track the annual income transfers from the marital and bypass trusts to the survivor trust.
- Because Bill lived in a state which had an estate tax at the state level, we gifted assets from Bill’s account to each of Bill’s adult children (Mary and Scott) to reduce estate taxes in Bill's state.
The Impact: All necessary financial details were taken care of following the death of Bill’s wife. We complied with the trust provisions, after making sure that there was no need for decanting the trust. We helped Bill optimize income taxes and estate taxes at the federal and state level.
(Note: This is similar to a real situation, but Bill is not an actual client. This description is hypothetical and for illustrative purposes only. This is not an endorsement or statement of client experience.)
