Law Office of Alicia Porter

Will Shendel, an attorney in Fairbanks (and all around great guy) has a fantastic blog that he’s written up, along with some of his colleagues.

Click here for the connection!

RLT: Revocable living trust – A revocable living trust (RLT) is a tool to avoid probate and avoid guardianships. It also helps to centralize the planning for individuals.  It provides no income tax benefit, provides no estate tax protection on its own, and provides no creditor protection to the trustmaker.

FLP: family limited partnership  – FLPs should really only be used where a business is involved. One should have a business purpose for the FLP.  A properly drafted FLP can centralize control, and  provide asset protection.

CRT: Charitable remainder trust- useful if someone pre-deceases and there is a residuary that needs to be tackled to avoid a lapse problem

GST: Generation Skipping Transfer Tax

SNT– special needs trust – this can be helpful for a child or grandchild where they are disabled, mentally ill, or have other impairments which would make it impossible for them to be self sufficient without trust assistance. This trust can be advantageous when dealing with Medicaid issues on behalf of the child.

ILIT – irrevocable life insurance trust- the life insurance is paid to the trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries One of the primary reason executing a life insurance trust is estate tax considerations. If an ILIT is properly structured, the death benefits paid to the trust will be free from inclusion in the gross estate of the insured.

Bypass trust – a trust into which a decedent’s estate passes, so that the surviving heirs get a life estate in the trust, rather than the property itself, in order to avoid estate taxes on an estate larger than the tax credited sheltered amount. Each spouse puts his or her property in an AB trust. When the first spouse dies, his or her half of the property goes to the beneficiary named in the trust- with the condition that the surviving spouse has the right to use the property for life and is entitled to any income it generates. The surviving spouse may even be allowed to spend principal in certain circumstances. When the surviving spouse dies, the property passes to the trust beneficiaries. It is not considered part of the second spouse’s estate for estate tax purposes.

CRAT: charitable remainder annuity trust

CRUT– charitable remainder trust – a trust that consists of assets that are designated for a charitable purpose and that are paid over to the trust after  the expiration of a life estate CRT’s are irrevocable trusts that actually provide for and maintain two sets of beneficiaries. The first set are the income beneficiaries.

Income beneficiaries receive a set percentage of income for your lifetime from the trust. The second set of beneficiaries are the charities you have picked to benefit from your trust.

QPRT – qualified personal residence trust – A Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT) is an irrevocable trust created by an individual (donor). At the time of its creation, a QPRT is funded with the donor’s ownership interest in a personal residence. By using a QPRT, the donor can exclude the full value of the residence from the donor’s estate, and the residence will not be subject to estate tax.

Trust Protector A trust protector is an independent person who is responsible to independently determine if the trust assets are being properly managed. The advantage to having a trust protector is that it adds flexibility to a trust and allows the grantor to delegate to someone else for almost every other future circumstance. A trust protector can be used to maximize tax advantages and provide independent review.  The disadvantage to having a trust protector is that you are vesting considerable power into one person. It also adds another level of cost and administration.

http://www.millspatentlaw.com/SmithKline_Complaint-100907.pdf

This is the latest lawsuit regarding the new patent rules that will be implemented effective November 1, 2007.

The Alaska Patent Attorney Blog is published by Alicia Porter, as an educational resource only. None of the material on this site is expressly or impliedly meant to provide legal advice to you in any way shape or form. The blog is intended as a means for a consumer to understand the fendamentals of certain areas of law – it is not geared as legal advice for your particular legal issues. Since the material on this site is provided for educational use only, and laws continuously change, the author of this website neither expressly nor impliedly warrants that any of the material provided on this website is accurate. If you have a legal issue we strongly suggest that you contact a lawyer in your state for a legal consultation. No attorney / client relationship shall be expressly or impliedly created between Alicia Porter and the Law Office of Alicia Porter and you, by the publishing of articles on this site, nor should you interpret that any such relationship has been created by the publishing of any content on this site. Alicia Porter and the Law Office of Alicia Porter shall assume no liability whatsoever for your reliance on any of articles contained herein, nor should you rely on said articles as statements of fact.