The University of Wyoming Extension office provides some good estate planning advice for farmers and ranchers in its online offering, Passing It On: An Estate Planning Resource Guide for Wyoming’s Farmers and Ranchers. Check it out. By the way, my use of their logo doesn’t imply their endorsement, nor does it imply my endorsement of […]
“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 […]
“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 […]
I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35