Category: Media Clips

On March 31, an article with the headline “Medicaid Gets Harder to Tap” appeared on page B8 in The Wall Street Journal. For the piece, estate planning lawyer and founding principal of McManus & Associates John O. McManus shared advice on the topic with reporter Kelly Greene. From the write-up:

Fill the gap with insurance. John McManus, an estate-planning attorney in New Providence, N.J., has clients who are buying long-term-care insurance to cover the five-year look-back period. That way, they can use their assets until coverage kicks in, and then transfer what is left to their children.

“It’s a way to hedge their bets without having to buy lifetime long-term-care insurance coverage, which has gotten really expensive,” he says.

To learn more about the challenges and restrictions faced when trying to use Medicaid to help pay for long-term care, check out the full story.

Principal of McManus & Associates and estate planning Attorney John McManus recently worked with Bloomberg’s Margaret Collins to help identify tax and estate planning strategies employed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who last week publicly released his tax return. Examination by McManus and his team revealed that Romney utilized smart tactics to maximize his charitable deductions and save on taxes. McManus draws from his expert knowledge to help explain one smart move identified in the public documents.

From the article:

Giving appreciated stock directly is better than writing a check because individuals generally receive a larger charitable deduction and make the donation with pretax dollars, said John O. McManus, principal of the law firm McManus & Associates in New Providence, New Jersey, and Manhattan, whose clients include those in the hedge-fund and private-equity industries.

If someone bought a share of stock for $1 and it’s now valued at $100, they would have a $99 gain when selling, McManus said. That means they may pay about $20 in state and federal capital-gains levies and if they donated the after-tax proceeds, that leaves them with an $80 charitable deduction. If they gave the share worth $100 directly, it may generate a $100 deduction and the foundation or donor-advised fund could liquidate the position without paying tax, thus keeping more assets to spend on its charitable endeavors, he said.

To read on for more of Romney’s strategies that can be replicated, click here.

This month, Forbes Editor Ashlea Ebeling turned to John O. McManus for insight on the court case of Peter Muscle and Linda Jackson. Ebeling’s article begins:

Here’s a heartbreak story that might make you decide to get married, move to Florida or hire a trusts & estates lawyer—or all three. A woman who dated her beau for 44 years and was on the verge of finally marrying him lost a case recently in New Jersey tax court that cost her beau’s estate $214,000 in state taxes. That’s money that would have otherwise gone to her and the man’s niece and nephew.

The piece goes on to cite the thoughts of McManus:

Making lifetime gifts to reduce the impact of state estate taxes still can work. “This case should not stop people from making lifetime gifts,” says John McManus, an estate lawyer in New Providence, N.J., adding the general warning: “Just take care to be mindful of issues with states.” Many wealthy folks are taking advantage of a bumped-up $5 million lifetime federal gift tax exemption, to transfer assets to loved ones (it’s in place through year-end 2012; it reverts to $1 million on Jan. 1, 2013). But it’s key that you consult a trusts & estates lawyer in your state (Jackson and Muscle had consulted with a Medicaid planning lawyer).

Find out about options with “gifting” by reading the full story.

John O. McManus recently spoke with reporter for TheStreet.com Joe Mont about common financial and legal moves to ensure beloved pets are taken care of once an owner passes away.

From the article:

It isn’t just the rich and famous who make financial and legal moves to make sure Rover, Fluffy and Snowball are cared for after they pass on.

John O. McManus, founding principal of McManus & Associates, a trusts and estates law firm in New York and New Jersey, says he often sees large sums reserved for grooming, health care and food choices “to ensure that the structure of high-quality care is in place for the pet.”

The first step for someone making such plans, even before money issues are discussed, is to establish a point person for carrying out post-death pet care requests.

“They need to choose someone who is going to serve in that position, someone they know is a pet lover and will treat their pet as though it were their own,” he says of his clients. “It is not dramatically dissimilar to when someone goes away on vacation for a week. With whom did they leave the pet?”

For more of John’s advice on planning for your pet’s well-being, check out the full story here.

Investment News Reporter Liz Skinner has published an article comparing state estate taxes. Skinner’s recent  interview with McManus & Associates Founding Principal John O. McManus revealed that New Jersey has one of the highest estate tax rates in the country, leading to the title of the piece, “Don’t Die in New Jersey.” From the story:

“New Jersey typically rises to among the highest levels of the least favorable places to pass away,” said John McManus, a tax attorney and founder of McManus & Associates. “And New York is not great.”

New Jersey begins taxing estates at $675,000 and has a maximum rate of 16%, in addition to a maximum 16% inheritance tax on beneficiaries who are not spouses or parents, or children or other lineal descendants. New York has a $1 million exemption for its estate tax, which also tops out at 16%.

To read how New Jersey stacks up against other states, check out the full article.

John O. McManus was recently interviewed by Investment News Reporter Liz Skinner for a story about the need for surviving spouses to swiftly file estate tax returns to guarantee ‘portability’ of unused exclusions. John is quoted throughout the piece.

From the article:

…the estate of someone who died Jan. 1, 2011, should have filed the estate tax return Form 706 by Oct. 3. Another form can be filed for an automatic six-month extension, the IRS said in its notice late last month.

Clients need to be informed of this hitch. The reason? Many don’t file an estate tax return if they don’t owe any taxes (thanks to the exemption on the estate tax), said John McManus, a tax attorney and founder of McManus & Associates. The value of the surviving spouse’s estate could surge before their death, however, and then it would be too late to claim the unused portion of the first spouse’s exemption.

“We just think it is prudent to file the return and seek portability for the surviving spouse,” Mr. McManus said.

Read the full write-up for more important advice on this issue.

John McManus was interviewed by Joe Mont of The Street for his article, “Debt Crisis Could Change Estate Tax.” John had this to say:

Thus far, changes to the budget compromise reached earlier this year between President Barack Obama and Republicans on the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest and estate taxes have been spared any effort to boost national revenues.

But legacy plans may still need to be revised sooner rather than later, says John O. McManus, founding principal of New York- and New Jersey-based McManus & Associates and a tax planning expert.

Currently, a patriarch or matriarch can give children, while they are still alive, up to $5 million without triggering the gift tax. Doing so allows that money to be spared a 55% tax hit via a so-called “death tax.” The $5 million limit could also be used upon death to shelter a portion of assets. Before the budget compromise, that limit was $1 million.

McManus says the real advantage is in being able to give away that money while you are still alive, but the ability to do so is in danger.

“The way that the Democrats negotiated the deal, and the way it was set up, is that it was only an extension for 24 months,” he says. “This whole thing evaporates Dec. 31, 2012.”

Given the tremendous wealth that will shift from aging baby boomers during he next 20 years, Democrats have taken “some solace” in the fact the compromise is short-term, McManus adds.

“They don’t want people giving away $5 million because 10 years from now that $5 million would have been $10 million back in the client’s estate and they would have gotten a 50% percent tax on that,” he says. “Because of the mounting debt crisis, there is a risk here that the first thing in jeopardy here is the amount of money that you can gift away … There clearly is looming a freight train coming down the track. We can see the smoke billowing and the light flickering. It is far enough down the track, but it may be picking up speed.”

In the meantime, so long as the gift tax exemption is on the table, McManus sees it as a “massive opportunity.”

But there’s a catch, he says. Read the rest here.

Kelly Greene quotes John McManus in her Wall Street Journal Article, “Milking a Business for Retirement”:

Professional advisers are pushing two new maneuvers designed to help small-business owners save for retirement or pass down their companies to heirs. While the strategies can make sense for some people, they also carry risks.

[ … ]

John McManus, an estate-planning attorney in New Providence, N.J., says that thanks to the higher exemption, he has worked with clients to set up this strategy “multiple times more frequently this year” than in the past. The maneuver can make sense for owners of stable businesses who would like to pass them along to their children eventually, but who can’t afford to quit receiving an income from that business, he says.

[ … ]

Here’s where retirement income comes in: You then set up a payment plan for 15 years of about $70,000 a year, plus interest. That means each trust would be getting about $125,000 in income a year and making a payment of roughly $70,000 back to the parents, Mr. McManus says.

You would have to pay a lawyer to set up the trusts, of course, and the income they generate would be taxable—and you would be responsible for paying those bills. If the business has a bad year, you can restructure the debt or forgive that year’s payment, though you may incur additional income tax, Mr. McManus says.

Read the rest here.