Monday, December 28, 2009

Thinking Hard About Retirement and Death

Doesn't seem like a popular topic for the Holiday Season, but the most-read article in the Money Section at nytimes.com this morning was Thinking Hard About Retirement and Death.

High-net-worth people really do thirst for information on financial and estate planning. That's why the sponsor of this blog creates newsletters and an impressive library of material for online use.

Incidentally, the NY Times article illustrates the futility of trying to comment on the estate tax snafu. Pity JPMorgan's Janine Racanelli, whom the Times coaxed into giving a quote that boils down to, “If we’re resigned to an estate tax existing, it’s … an acknowledgment we won’t have a repeal.”
Posted by JLM at 12:39 PM
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1 comment:

Jim Gust said...

Several significant errors in the Times characterization of 2010 and 2011 federal tax law. I thought they still had fact checking?

The carryover basis step up is not $1.3 million for singles and $3 million for couples. It's $3 million for assets passing to a surviving spouse, plus $1.3 million for other heirs. Hence, assuming no remarriage, couples would get $5.6 million in step ups over two deaths.

The 2011 estate tax rate on amounts over $1 million is not nearly 55%, that won't kick in until the estate reaches $3 million, I believe. On the other hand, the marginal estate tax rate is 60% above $10 million, until the benefit of the exemption and lower bracket rates are recaptured.

3:08 PM

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