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Question: I am a 72 year old widow. I own my house and have an IRA but have very little in cash assets, do I need a trust?

It pays to tie the knot, at least according to the IRS. The unlimited marital deduction is a provision in the U.S. Estate and Gift Tax Law that allows individuals to transfer an unrestricted amount of assets to their spouse at any time, free from tax.

Generation Skipping Transfer Tax (GSTT) is the tax imposed on transfers made to grandchildren, or individuals (other than a spouse) who are at least 37 陆 years younger than the donor of the gift. GSTT sounds complicated, and can be complicated, but the concept is simple.

Any divorce, regardless of the amount of assets of the couple, involves changes to the legal status between two individuals that will have a natural effect on your estate plan. Meeting with your estate planning attorney and having that attorney coordinate with your matrimonial attorney can prepare you for the most positive outcome.

When a co-owner of real property passes away, what happens next depends on how the co-owners took title to the property. Upon the death of a co-owner, it is necessary to review the last deed of record to make this determination.

Many people choose to invest in a life insurance policy. Some choose to purchase a term life insurance policy wherein the insured pays a premium for a period of years and if he or she passes away during that period of time, the policy will pay out to the designated beneficiaries, while others purchase whole life insurance which works more like an investment product and has a guaranteed payout no matter the insured鈥檚 age.

A credit shelter trust (CST) is an estate planning tool used for married couples to help reduce, if not eliminate, estate tax due at the death of the surviving spouse.

In general, a person cannot be removed from a deed without his or her consent and signature on a deed. Absent legal action with a court order, such as a foreclosure or a partition action, the only way an owner鈥檚 interest in real property can be transferred is by a properly executed, acknowledged and recorded deed conveying that owner鈥檚 interest to a new party.

Even if someone passes away with an estate below the federal estate tax exemption amount of $11.7 million dollars, if married, the estate should consider filing an estate tax return to capture the deceased spouse鈥檚 unused exemption amount.

Whenever I hear someone say they wrote their own Last Will and Testament, a familiar phrase comes to mind, 鈥淒on鈥檛 try this at home!鈥� Unless you are an experienced estate planning attorney, it is not a good idea to write your own Will, or to order a Will off a generic, non-state specific website.