Tag: money

Conference Call: “Top 10 Estate Planning Considerations to Complete Before Year-End”

November 22, 2013 - Conference Call

Yesterday, McManus & Associates held a client conference call reviewing several immediate strategies that clients should consider employing before year-end. With the proposed tax reforms listed in President Obama’s budget, certain planning strategies are in the crosshairs and may not be around for long. Although legislation next year could be made retroactive to January 1, 2014, if you act before the end of 2013 such changes will not affect your planning. Get inside the castle walls now.

During the half-hour call, the firm shares effective strategies and highlights maintenance items required to ensure one’s family wealth remains protected. Below are the 10 questions that will be answered by listening to the recording.

LISTEN HERE: “Top 10 Considerations for Estate Planning with Life Insurance”

Laws could change with new revenue debates. Have you made lifetime gifts in trust? Created a grantor trust?
Have you made sure to operate your family LLC/Limited partnership as a legitimate business? What should you do before year-end?
What should you give away? Are you planning to make annual exclusion gifts, gift appreciated securities etc? Have you prepared Crummey notices?
Should you create lifetime trusts for your children? Have you given your trustees a limited power of appointment?
What can you prepay? What should you prepay? Home, deductibles, medical expenses, major year-end purchases?
Have you crossed any major milestones this year? Do you have children who turned 18 this year? Do the fiduciaries and guardians named in your documents still reflect your current wishes? Are your powers of attorney up to date?
Have you made contributions to your family foundation and/or donated to charity?
Are you over 70 ½? How to use Required Minimum Distribution to your advantage.
Create GRATs or QPRTs. Given the current interest rates what should you consider?
How should you consider harvesting capital gains, timing long-term losses?

Give us a call at 908-898-0100. We can help you identify which strategies you should implement now before the calendar rolls over to 2014.

Motley Fool Turns to McManus to Answer, “Who Should Be Executor?”

October 17, 2013 - Media Clips

Michele Lerner, a contributing writer to The Motley Fool, this week turned to McManus & Associates Founding Principal John O. McManus to answer the question, “Who Should You Ask to Be Executor of Your Estate?” From the article:

“A common adage in the industry is to name your enemy as your executor as a means of revenge,” says John O. McManus, an estate attorney and founding principal of McManus & Associates in New York City. “It’s a thankless job. If you appoint someone you love as executor, get your house in order. Otherwise, appoint someone you do not.”

Lerner points out that many people choose their closest relatives, but “before you decide, think hard about what you’re asking this person to do.”

She goes on to share that she talked to McManus about “what it means to be an executor and how to go about choosing one.” Below are the questions for which she shares answers from McManus & Associates:

Q: What are the responsibilities of an executor?
Q: Do you need to have a financial or legal background?
Q: How much time does it take to be an executor?
Q: Should you have more than one executor or is it best to have only one?
Q: Is it best to ask someone before you name them in your will as executor?
Q: Can someone turn down the job of executor?
Q: Can you get compensated for the time you put in as an executor?
Q: Can you be sued as an executor?
Q: Is there anything an executor can do to reduce family fights over personal property?

To find all of our answers to Lerner’s questions, check out the Daily Finance article here.

Fox Business: McManus shares advice on how to ensure a trust meets personal, financial needs

June 17, 2013 - Media Clips

Top-rated Attorney John O. McManus recently spoke with Bankrate Reporter Judy Martel about how to ensure a trust is set up to meet your personal and financial needs. Published today and syndicated by Fox Business, Martel’s piece, “An Irrevocable Trust That Evolves with You,” covers the keys to choosing a trust that “meets your specific needs while building in the maximum amount of flexibility allowed so that, as your needs change and evolve, you retain some power over the trust.”

In the article, Martel shares counsel from McManus:

One of the first important considerations when setting up a trust is its location, says John McManus, founder of McManus & Associates in New Providence, N.J. Some states offer better creditor protection, allow for a trust to exist for a longer period of years before becoming taxable or do not impose state income tax on trust assets. A few states, he says — notably Alaska, Delaware, South Dakota and Nevada — provide additional power to the trust creator while still protecting assets from creditors and maintaining the trust’s tax-beneficial status. Although trusts can be set up in those states regardless of where you live, it is typically more expensive.

She also draws on knowledge shared by McManus, the founding principal of McManus & Associates, to help readers understand the structure of a trust:

At the top of the triangle is the trustee, the person who has legal title to the assets in the trust and the one responsible for managing the trust, making discretionary decisions and carrying out the terms of the trust agreement. The creator can be the trustee, but generally that’s not a good idea in most states because, depending on how the trust is written, the state laws and how much discretionary power the creator has, the trust can lose its tax-beneficial status or be subject to creditors, McManus says.

Beneficiaries, the second point of the triangle, are those who will receive the beneficial interest in the trust. They can be amended, added or dropped if the creator of the trust retains the right of appointment, McManus says. “Let’s say I have two layers of beneficiaries in my trust — first to my wife and sister and then to my children and my sister’s children,” McManus says. “After I create the trust, I want to cut out one of the beneficiaries, or one of them needs more money. I have the right to choose who will receive money and how much,” he says. Even better, he adds, “I don’t have to decide that right away. That allows people to put a lot of assets in that trust when they otherwise might not because who knows how my sister’s children will turn out or how my children will turn out?”

What standards help ensure that the beneficiary’s needs are met within reason and as defined by the trust agreement?

The amount of distribution is also up to the creator of the trust. It can be controlled by the use of ascertainable standards, which restrict the trustee to distributions for the benefit of health, education, maintenance and support, says McManus…They also protect the trust from being taxed if a child beneficiary is also named as trustee, McManus says.

To learn more about how to draft an irrevocable trust properly to save in estate taxes and give you “the comfort of knowing you’ve ensured a financial future for your beneficiaries,” read the whole story here.

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McManus & Associates’ Advice on Irrevocable Trusts Featured by The Trust Advisor

June 7, 2013 - Media Clips

The Trust Advisor, dubbed as “America’s Leading Wealth Management e-Newsletter,” today published an article based on McManus & Associates’ latest client conference call in our educational series. The piece, titled “The Trusts Are Signed, Now It’s Time To Keep Them Running,” opens by pointing out that the fiscal cliff pushed billions of dollars into irrevocable trusts.

Author of the story Scott Martin observes that “most of the assets have already flown, leaving many advisors who rode the trust wave to ask what’s next.” Martin goes on to cite advice from top-AV rated Attorney and Founding Principal of McManus & Associates John O. McManus:

This is actually a big opportunity for those who can switch gears from helping people create trusts to the heavy lifting of keeping those vehicles properly, says top attorney John O. McManus.

He still preaches the importance of those families who have not yet transferred their estates into an irrevocable trust – as he notes, the assets should continue to appreciate – but those who already have are often at a loss.

“I always explain to my clients that the creation of a trust shouldn’t be viewed as a box to check,” he says. “Rather than setting up the trust and moving on, new planning ideas can be continually implemented that utilize the trust as a leading instrument to accomplish one’s financial mission.”

Check out the full write-up to see McManus’ checklist for managing an existing irrevocable trust.

McManus Interview Inspires New Jersey Newsroom Column: “Who Inherits Dad’s Subscription to Giants’ Football Games?”

May 9, 2013 - Media Clips

New Jersey Newsroom Columnist Warren Boroson (“Boroson on Money”) has a new, interesting piece on how to avoid fighting over family heirlooms and personal property after the death of a loved one. The column hinges on McManus & Associates’ recent conference call on the topic, which you can listen to here. Following the call, Boroson spoke with the firm’s Founding Principal and top AV-rated Attorney John O. McManus to gather more details. The result, “Who Inherits Dad’s Subscription to Giants’ Football Games?” is worth checking out.

Here’s a peek:

Who gets dad’s subscription to New York Giants football games – worth a ton of money? Who gets the little silhouettes someone made of all the family members? Who gets grandma’s expensive jewelry? Who gets Fido and the Chairman Meow and other family pets? What about liquor collections, gun collections, rare books, and other “non-titled property”?

A will may not specify who gets such property, with the result that the heirs may wind up fighting over trivial stuff – and expensive stuff. And the resentment may last the rest of their lives. A little planning, says lawyer John O. McManus of McManus & Associates in New Providence, can prevent a lot of hard feelings and family feuds. “Things, personal effects, closely-held assets and land can cause significant fighting among loved ones and oftentimes attorneys give hardly any attention to such items in the creation of legal documents,” McManus warns.

To read the whole thing, head over to New Jersey Newsroom: http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/economy/w ho-inherits-dads-subscription-to-giants-football-games