Probate Attorney Blog

Do overseas gifts have to pay gift tax? At CMS Law Firm we do estate planning, we do it well, and we’d love to talk to you about how you can protect your family, protect yourself, and protect your money. Good news for you is, that’s easy to do. Just click the link and set up a time for your free strategy session – https://cmslawfirm.com/estateplanningstrategysession. Talk to you soon! #estateplanningattorney #probatelawyer #family #money #estatetaxes #wealth #kids #taxes #realestate

Last week my dog Piper was put to sleep. He was almost 13 years old. He could barely walk. He had a lot of growths. He was in pain. It was his time. And I’m going to miss him. A lot. But I’m not sad. I’m grateful. He had a wonderful life, and I got to be a part of it. I knew he wouldn’t be around forever. Nothing is. So, instead of grieving, I am celebrating. Celebrating the friend…

This is probably the first of many newsletter editions talking about this. What exactly, am I talking about? The 2026 federal estate tax reversion. What is that? Great question! Here’s the short version: Each of us has a federal estate tax exemption of about 13 million dollars right now (i.e. you only pay tax on your assets OVER $13m); In 2026 this amount is set to revert to the pre-2017 amount (about $6.5m). Pretty straightforward, right? It is, and here’s…

A few weeks ago I wrote about some new reporting LLC rules and how the headline for the changes was “anonymous LLCs go away” but the fact is not much is changing from the current reporting requirements. In that message I hinted at a way to create a truly anonymous LLC and then never followed up. Well, a few of you reached out asking about that, so I thought I’d break it down here real quick. You ready? Let’s go….

Today’s blog is dual purpose. Purpose #1 is to give kudos to all of you receiving this that have completed your estate plan. Purpose #2 is to show you a real world example of what happens if you don’t have an estate plan. Here we go! I was doing an estate plan signing with a client last week when they mentioned something in passing that caught my attention. “I died about a year ago.” Not “I almost died.” “I died.”…

We talk to a lot of people about estate planning. It’s our job. :) And a lot of those conversations involve people interested in eliminating all estate taxes they might owe. And that’s a great goal. Unless you don’t have a plan at all. Then it’s a terrible goal. Most people don’t believe me over the phone. They don’t have enough time to consider the consequences of failing to take care of the main thing first. So I thought I’d…

Happy New Year! Well, tomorrow, at least. :) I thought I’d close out this year by letting you see inside the Kimono and get a peek at what we’re focusing on in 2024. There will be some new, and a lot of building on the foundation we’ve already created. Interested? Here we go! Before I get started, what I’m planning on doing is just listing out one by one the things I’m hoping to accomplish in 2024. They’ll be short…