Asset Protection, Wills, Trusts, Estate & Business Planning
“Think about the [gun] trust as a means to keep the client safe and legal, and to provide all of the guidance to their beneficiaries so they stay safe and legal.” Matthew Bergstrom, attorney
Under current gift and estate tax law, if you pay a gift or estate tax, it will be at a flat rate of 40%. Forty percent. But most people will never pay that rate, or any rate at all, because their estates are not large enough and what estate or gift taxes they could have […]
“Creative solutions to common problems will be found. The potential is limitless, needing only–as has always been the case in the West–the people to match the challenges: ‘a society to match the scenery,’ as Wallace Stegner expressed it.” Teno Roncalio, Special Master of the Bighorn Adjudication of water rights, quoted in Wyoming’s Big Horn General […]
Yesterday, I clicked on the Deseret News and discovered a story of intense interest to me, a story about the Utah business community’s reaction to House Bill 251. I’m a businessperson. I work with businesses in my law practice. I’m about as pro-business as they come. And yet, I support this bill. A little background–a […]
“If you get up early, work late, and pay your taxes, you will get ahead–if you strike oil.” J. Paul Getty
There’s a misconception out there that if you use a revocable living trust in your estate planning, you avoid probate and save on all those costs associated with probate. Well, maybe and maybe not. First, in order to avoid probate, virtually everything you own has to be owned in a way that will do just […]
“Money-giving is a very good criterion, in a way, of a person’s mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill people.” Dr. Karl Menniger, Forbes magazine.
You’re the executor or personal representative of an estate (they’re the same thing, by the way) or a trustee of a trust. The owner of some NFA firearms has died, and you’re left to deal with the aftermath. (Of course, the real “owner” of any NFA arms in a trust is the trustee, but generally, […]
Remember when you were in your teens and still driving your parents’s cars? Every Friday night, it was the same routine, “Dad, Mom, can I use the car tonight?” And either the keys would come flying your way–or they wouldn’t. But when they did, you were off in a flash and out for the night. […]
Plans to continue the [farming] firm may be frustrated by the lack of a competent management team. This situation may be avoided by taking steps, such as the following, to prepare for the future: Stressing the idea of a team approach to making decisions. Focusing on developing management skills. Emphasizing cross-training. Developing a system of routine communications. Implementing routine, nonthreatening […]