Estate Planning for Minors
The ABA has recently published a book entitled Tax, Estate, and Lifetime Planning for Minors edited by Carmina Y. D’Aversa. Here is a summary of this new publication:
Numerous and often complicated issues are involved in estate planning for minor children, including taxation, education funding, insurance, and disability of a minor or a minor’s caregiver. Tax, Estate, and Lifetime Planning for Minors focuses exclusively on the pertinent issues facing adults when planning for younger family members. Combining core legal concepts with practical wisdom, it is a handy desk reference not only for the seasoned practitioner but for the general or novice practitioner handling his or her first estate plan.
Bringing together the practical advice and knowledge of fourteen experts in taxation and estate planning, Tax, Estate, and Lifetime Planning for Minors begins with a clearly written overview of pertinent Federal transfer and income tax principles. A separate chapter is dedicated to the increasingly significant death and gift taxes that may be imposed by the states. Subsequent chapters cover other important elements in planning for younger family members, including:
- Selection of life insurance policies and irrevocable life insurance trusts
- Funding education costs
- Planning options for the daily care of a minor in the event of a caregiver’s incapacity
- Special needs trusts and planning for the disabled minor
- Transfer of retirement benefits to minors
- Special considerations for children born of assisted reproductive technologies
Relevant chapters categorize current state laws with the use of easy-to-read informational charts, whether covering state-by-state tax regimes, state-specific daily child care options for incapacitated caregivers, or state adopted provisions of the Uniform Transfers or Gifts to Minors Acts. Tax, Estate, and Lifetime Planning for Minors also examines the most significant non-tax considerations required when testamentary planning involves minor children.
This desk book is written especially for the practitioner, and its discussion of the law is illustrated with helpful Practice Notes, sample language, and detailed notes and citations. The appendices include sample forms and disclaimers, tables, a Website resource listing, a client questionnaire, and drafting examples. The book’s forms are also contained on an accompanying CD-ROM.