Disclaimer Planning: The Swiss Army Knife of Tax and Estate Planning
This session will offer a comprehensive discussion of how disclaimers work and when they can be used. The session will be split into two parts. Part I will cover the many rules that allow disclaimers to work, including requirements for a qualified disclaimer, eligibility, trust disclaimers, special rules for spouses, disclaimers of partial interests, disclaiming powers of appointment, jointly held property, non-tax uses of disclaimers, and drawbacks of disclaimer planning.
Part II will cover the many uses of disclaimers in tax planning, including attaining the "perfect" level of the applicable exemption amount, over-funded applicable exemption gifts, adjusting, amending, or qualifying marital deduction bequests, the Optimal Generation-Skipping Transfer (GST) tax exemption, disclaiming to address state inheritance tax issues, and possible "defects" in various transfers.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the rules and requirements for an effective disclaimer
- Address the uses of disclaimers in effective tax and estate planning
