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Just curious if anyone has a good answer as to how long to keep tax records (and supporting documents) for a deceased parent. Even my accountant doesn't really have an exact answer... lots of "well, if she was suspected of tax fraud then longer...". My MIL died in 2011. We filed the estate tax stuff within the timeframe, and it got selected for an audit in 2013. We went through that and everything was settled without much fuss in 2014. We're looking to move again, and I want to shed more paperwork. We have tons of her paperwork going back...

RANT! It's a frustrating situation to have in your hands a check from the US Treasury for over $141,000 and you can't do a darned thing with it except frame it and hang it on the wall as a souvenir. My MIL passed away in 2011, and my wife (as the only surviving relative) was named in the will as the executor of the estate and successor to the trust. The will was filed with the courts in L.A. and the long process began. We paid the IRS $240K the first year in estimated estate taxes along with a request...

As thousands of state residents enroll in Washington’s expanded Medicaid program, many will be surprised at fine print: After you’re dead, your estate can be billed for ordinary health-care expenses. State officials are scrambling to change the rule. It wasn’t the moonlight, holiday-season euphoria or family pressure that made Sofia Prins and Gary Balhorn, both 62, suddenly decide to get married. It was the fine print. As fine print is wont to do, it had buried itself in a long form — Balhorn’s application for free health insurance through the expanded state Medicaid program. As the paperwork lay on the...

Assets become targets of the states ___ Most people think they’re exempt from the estate tax (often called the “death tax”) because they don’t have $2 million. A lot of people with low incomes do have some assets, however, and if they have used any Medicaid benefits, their heirs may be in for a shock. Depending on state law, the state may have the right to everything, up to the cost of Medicaid benefits received — house, car, bank accounts, tools, annuities, piano, furniture, everything — and not just 50 percent of it. This situation is not exactly new. The...

Current Law The 2001 tax relief bill (EGTRRA), drastically reduced the impact of the death tax over the course of a decade, so that it was eliminated entirely for one year in 2010 — a good year to die, joked a number of pundits. The bill lowered marginal rates and increased the applicable exclusion amount, but it also included a provision allowing individuals to carry over exclusion dollars that were unused by their spouse at the time of his or her death. This “portability” measure effectively increased the applicable exclusion for many households, in some instances putting millions of dollars...

Fiscal Policy: The new year saw the death of the estate tax. But like Freddie Krueger, this epitome of class warfare and wealth redistribution is sure to return to wreak havoc among the living. Once dubbed the "Paris Hilton" tax, the levy is supposed to target the inherited wealth of the super-rich who really didn't earn it or don't really need so much of it. Or so we're told. But at some point, even inherited wealth was created and taxed in its creation. The death tax is double taxation, and just because you can't take it with you doesn't mean...

The Obama administration will propose $60 billion in new tax increases over 10 years on wealthy estates, businesses and others to make up for shortfalls in its fund to pay for an expensive overhaul of the health-care system. Officials said that upon further analysis they realized that they had overestimated savings and tax increases proposed in February to help pay the bill. One element would raise an estimated $24 billion over 10 years by tightening estate-tax rules, giving taxpayers less flexibility to minimize their liability on inherited goods by claiming a different value on the same item for different transactions....

Excerpt from the book by Scott H. Moore, The Limits of Liberal Democracy, 2009 Walker Percy's 1971 novel Love in the Ruins is set "in these dread latter days of the old violent beloved U.S.A..." Narrator Dr. Tom More begins with his delightfully disturbing description of life in the Paradise Estates suburb, just before the "end of the world." More tells us that: [start quote}...the scientists, who are mostly liberal and unbelievers, and the businessmen, who are mostly conservative and Christian, live side by side in Paradise Estates. Though the two make much of their differences -- one speaking of...

Over the next 50 years, it's expected that $45 trillion will be transferred to heirs and charities via estates - the largest wealth transfer in history. How much of it is siphoned by trustees or lost to estate taxes, administrative fees, lawyers' fees, appraiser fees, accountants' fees or poor investment acumen surely will be a record, as well. Estate planning, in particular trusts and their administration by financial institutions, can be mind-numbingly complex. Talk of them turns on the unpleasant subject of death. But unless consumers remain vigilant - and technology is employed for checks and balances - assets will...

What would be the best estate strategy for an 80 year old widow with assets valued at approaching 3 million. All assets are in her name and nothing has been sheltered. Almost two million of that is in property that has been held for longer than 30 years. One is a rental building the other is a beachhouse. It is a good bet she will outlive the sunset of the existing laws. The individual is in good health, managing glaucoma, high blood pressure and high cholesterol with medication. History of diabeties in the family. Is gradual reduction of the value...

Police want spy planes to patrol troubled estates By Adam Lusher (Filed: 15/10/2006) Police chiefs are considering using unmanned surveillance drones to hover over problem estates as part of plans for Britain's first "yob squad" to tackle anti-social behaviour. Merseyside Police's new Anti-Social Behaviour Task Force, already known locally as "the yob squad", will have an annual budget of £1 million, and a staff of 137 drawn from the fire service as well as the police. Its leader is promising to bring an "Al Capone approach" to anti-social behaviour, using "any lawful means necessary". Task force leaders are in discussions...

Thuss said he's upset that the university and museum received the bulk of Denman's wealth — about $24 million by his lawyers' estimates — but now seem to be ignoring Denman's wishes to keep El Capote intact.

Interest in living wills - the documents that let people specify what medical measures they want or do not want at the end of life - has surged in the aftermath of the fierce nationwide battle over the fate of Terri Schiavo, lawyers and other experts on all sides of the issue say. While interest peaked around the time of Ms. Schiavo's death on March 31, it is still strong, these experts say. Many people are filling out the forms for the first time. Others are taking a new look at forms they filled out some time ago. Most living...

LOS ANGELES - The late Hollywood power broker and producer Ray Stark and his wife have donated 28 masterpiece sculptures to the J. Paul Getty Trust to establish a sculpture garden at the Getty Center. The 20th-century sculptures include the works of Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Barbara Hepworth, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Aristide Maillol, Joan Miro, Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi, the Getty trust said Monday in a statement. The works are mainly bronze and were created between 1911 and 1988. "They're very important pieces, very important artists," John Giurini, spokesman for the Getty Trust, said Monday. He declined to...