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Latest from Iowa Trusts & Estates Blog

Dickinson Law is pleased to announce that Andrea Rastelli has joined the firm. Andrea is a recent Juris Doctor graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law and holds a B.A. in International Relations and Latin American Studies from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Her legal training includes serving as an intern at John Deere Financial and Comcast Corporate, and as an extern at ACT where collectively she gained experience on issues such as…
Dickinson Law is pleased to announce that 19 of the firms’ attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the 2020 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America®.  Attorney F. Richard Lyford was also recognized by Best Lawyers® as the Litigation – Real Estate  “Lawyer of the Year” in Des Moines. Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence and is the oldest and…
In part one and part two of this three part series, I examined the basics of Crummey Trusts for bank trustees and discussed why beneficiaries should be notified of their right to withdraw. In this final portion I’ll examine the impact of recent tax law changes encouraging some settlors to abandon their Crummey Trusts prematurely. Late in 2017 President Trump signed Public Law 115-97, the federal budget for fiscal year 2018. Much has been written…
My last blog, The Crummey Side of Trust Banking, examined the basics of the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. One of the administrative steps included was sending notice to the beneficiaries with a right to demand a disbursement after a gift. There are a myriad of consequences when a beneficiary decides to make a demand and that naturally leads to the question, “do you really have to send them a notice?” As a refresher, Crummey …
This is the first in a series of three blogs dealing with bank trustee risk and Irrevocable Life Insurance (Crummey) Trusts. Crummey Trusts represent a disproportionate risk in a bank’s trust department. They contain few assets and many odd provisions. In this series of three blogs, I’ll examine the pitfalls of managing Crummey Trusts as a bank trustee and share some basic strategies to minimize the risk involved Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, also known as…
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Dickinson Law is pleased to announce that 18 of the firms’ attorneys have been included in the 2019 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence.  Our attorneys’ commitment to client service and legal excellence has been recognized across 28 areas of law and our attorneys recognized by Best Lawyers have amassed over 170 years of recognition. Please join us in congratulating the…
Committed relationships come in all shapes and sizes. As cultural norms shift and expand, the obligation to walk down the aisle in front of loved ones is no longer required. In today’s society where divorce rates soar, some people also choose to forego a marriage license to eliminate the pressure of an even messier split down the road. The surprising reality is that even if you forego a ceremonial union, you could wind up in…
Joint revocable trusts (“JRT”) for spouses seem to be gaining popularity in Iowa. Attorneys professing to use them cite to the good, warm feeling that it gives their clients knowing that their marital assets are all in one pot which is a little like that feeling a spouse may have after secretly installing “find my friends” app on hubby’s cell phone. Both can cause lots of problems.  The difficulty that arises when spouses contribute assets to a…
I’ll make this easy on you. Unlike a law school exam, I’m not going to make you spot the issue. The issue in the following fact pattern is whether Decedent, through the language in her will, waived her right to recovery of estate taxes under Internal Revenue Code § 2207A.  As the example below shows, recovery of estate taxes under IRC § 2207A may disproportionately burden and benefit certain beneficiaries of a taxable estate. Assume…
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Congress and President Trump want to significantly increase military spending, which will be paid for by an increase in taxes. Oh, excuse me, that last part was an alternative fact. The increased military spending will be paid for by a decrease in taxes through the magic of supply side economics. Most economists disagree that this can happen as polled by the University of Chicago.   So where can Congress and Trump find the money to…