A lawyer will sometimes get a call or email from the agent acting under a client’s durable general power of attorney with questions about the client’s estate plan. The lawyer continues to owe a duty of confidentiality to the client...
One of the major goals of the Pennsylvania Uniform Trust Act (Act of July 7, 2006, No. 98 of 2006) was to conform the laws relating to revocable trusts to the laws relating to wills and decedent’s estates. The chart below...
In a previous article, it was suggested that the new limitation on itemized deductions, reducing itemized deductions by 2/37ths of the amount by the amount by which taxable income is subject to tax at the maximum 37% rate, should not...
One of the few good things about the Act of July 2, 2014, P.L. 855, No. 95, which made a number of significant changes to 20 Pa.C.S. Ch. 56 (“Powers of Attorney”), is that the act provided a list of...
In 2024, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published final regulations, to be effective December 1, 2025, requiring financial reporting for non-financed residential real estate transactions. “Anti-Money Laundering Regulations for Residential Real Estate Transfers,” 84 F.R. 70258 (9/29/2024), adopting 31...
In the article on the increase in the federal estate tax exclusion amount under the “megabill” enacted as P.L. 119-21 (see “Federal Estate Tax Exclusion Increased to $15 Million“), it was reported that a number of income tax provisions that...
I’ve seen and heard many questions from lawyers over the years who are representing personal representatives (i.e., executors or administrators) of an estate and who are not certain about what to do do when there has been no notice of...
Generally speaking, an individual retirement account (IRA) is subject to inheritance tax if the owner of the account was age 59-1/2 or older at death, and an employer-sponsored pension, profit-sharing, or other form of retirement plan is taxable if the...
The word “situs,” from the Latin for “position” or “location,” is often used in connection with three different issues: which state’s courts have jurisdiction over the administration of the trust, which state’s laws govern the interpretation or administration of the...
The Pa. Department of Revenue has issued a Realty Transfer Tax Bulletin explaining the exemption for real property distributed from an estate, and the bulletin provides some helpful guidance on a few issues. Realty Transfer Tax Bulletin 2024-01, “Transfers from...