The IRS announced that the estate tax exemption for 2015 will increase from $5.34 million to $5.43 million. This is the amount that can be left estate tax free to heirs. Those taxpayers suffering from dyslexia will see little difference.
The Curious Case of Brangelina
- Wednesday, 01 October 2014 22:02
Not being a reader of People magazine, I missed the news of the Brad Pitt- Angelina Jolie August wedding. I had assumed they were married years ago. Apparently they executed a fairly public pre-nuptial agreement prior to their wedding. The agreement provides that in the event they divorce they will each keep their respective assets but any marital assets will mostly benefit their children and various global orphanages. The odd provision is that in the event Mr. Pitt is unfaithful due to Ms. Jolie’s children penchant for adopting children as if they were Tamagotchi, she will receive most of the custody rights for the children.
Several points:
1. Pre-nuptial agreements are advisable in the event of second marriages or where there is disparate wealth between the parties. When both parties are Hollywood A Listers with similar net worths, they are more for show than practical effect.
2. The behavior clause about infidelity of Mr. Pitt is unlikely to be enforced by a court.
3. Am I the only one who appreciates the coincidence that Mr. Pitt finally tied the knot with Ms. Jolie only a month before his bromance buddy, George Clooney, married?
4. Presumably Angelina will keep the vial of Billy Bob Thornton’s blood in the event of a divorce.
Blissful Ignorance?
- Monday, 15 September 2014 10:11
The will of Andrew Madoff, son of Ponzi schemer Bernie, was admitted to probate court last week. The will reportedly left his personal property valued at $11.5 million to his 2 daughters. He left one third of his $4.5 million of real estate to his estranged wife, and the remaining 2/3 of it to a trust for his long time girlfriend. His girlfriend is to receive $50,000 per month for the rest of her life. Notably, his wife withdrew her 5+ year old divorce filing 6 months ago. Andrew long maintained he was unaware of his father’s activities even though he worked for his father’s firm.
Many points:
1. It was smart, if not cynical and financially calculating, of his wife to withdraw her divorce complaint prior to his death because assets pass to a spouse free of federal estate taxes.
2. I suspect that he also has a funded trust because there is no way to pay his girlfriend $50K monthly for the rest of her life based on a trust with $3 million principal ($2 million after estate taxes).
3. If there is a funded trust, it behooves the question why these $16 million of assets were not transferred to the trust prior to his death and why the will did not simply pour all assets into the trust and keep these provisions from the public eye.
4. The karma at work in Bernie Madoff;s life is almost commensurate with the amount of money he stole – reported to the feds by the sons he protected from his scheme, estranged from them afterwards, and now both of them dead before the age of 50 while he is alive in prison at 76. Almost commensurate.
Crazy is as Crazy Does
- Thursday, 28 August 2014 19:30
A Scottish nurse falsely accused her grandfather of sexually abusing her when she was younger in an attempt to accelerate her inheritance. After the charges were found to be bogus, she was sentenced to 22 months in jail for fabricating the claims which forced her grandfather to spend some time in jail after they were made.
Several points:
1. Her plot was as poorly conceived as the USC football player’s story about jumping off a balcony to rescue a drowning nephew. There is no law that treats criminals as deceased and then accelerates an inheritance.
2. While she is in jail she might wish to study a table of consanguinity and learn that even if her grandfather were dead, her grandmother would inherit his estate. Her own parent would inherit if her grandmother were deceased.
3. Consider it a hunch, but I suspect she will now never inherit a dime (or should I say shilling) from her grandfather.
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