Quote for the Day

Actually, this is not a quote but a paraphrase of some information I found the other day on the Internet. Can’t remember the source–I think I may have found it on Farm Bureau website and repeated in a variety of other places, including a Nationwide Insurance brochure I discovered online. With that, this: Almost 97% […]

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Some Things I Learned Answering Questions on a Forum for Asking Legal Questions

So I sometimes forget that everybody’s smart, just on different subjects. For example, I don’t know much about physics. My teachers tried, but my head could only hold so much gravity and speed of light and such. Well, today I was online in an online forum where non-lawyers posed legal questions to attorneys. These were […]

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Funding is to Trusts as Fuel is to a Car

I find that people are mystified by trusts. The mention of the word seems to raise mental blocks and other barriers to understanding. It gets even worse when you mention the word “funding” in the same breath as “trust.” Let’s see if I can clarify. A Trust is Like a Corporation–sort of For our purposes, […]

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Empty Chamber Indicator

For reasons I may disclose later, I was checking out the website of the TV program Behind the Scenes. I looked at some of the program’s past episodes and guests and quickly realized that Behind the Scenes keeps some good company. I was on site, however, to see what kind of journalism the program practiced. I […]

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Quote for the Day

Failure to address the new issues raised by Rule 41F will expose owners of firearms trusts to the risk of committing a new kind of accidental felony, i.e. related to a failure to document an RP [responsible person]. Firearms trusts must be reviewed–and likely revised–to clarify the roles of the parties involved and whether or […]

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Estate & Business Planning: Facts Matter. If They’re Not on Your Side, You’re in Trouble.

I’ve just finished reading the Estate of Purdue case, a tax court case decided in December. The case is interesting as an introduction to sophisticated tax planning strategies–FLLC, trusts, and all that. However, the real lesson from this case–and others like it–is that facts matter to courts. In this case, the IRS was contending that […]

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