Latest from DeAngelis Legal Blog - Page 2

Scottsdale couple with adult children desired to update their estate plan.  After a quick discussion regarding the assets, the children and the couple’s objectives, DeAngelis Legal created and implemented a simple revocable trust and ancillary documents necessary to achieve their objectives upon disability and death.  The documents included wills, financial powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney, living wills, last instructions and a deed transferring their residence to their revocable trust.
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New Scottsdale business client offered a key employee the right to purchase the business.  DeAngelis Legal worked with the client and its CPA to structure the terms of the deal and documented the letter of intent, purchase agreement and security documents evidencing the transaction.
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Arizona closely held service business navigated the resignation of an employee and the mutual termination of the entirety of their business and employment relationship. DeAngelis Legal reviewed the company’s Buy-Sell Agreement and General Release, responded to the departing employee’s claims, advised the remaining owners of their rights and obligations and successfully negotiated the resolution of the matter and the relinquishment of the employee’s claims.
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Long time Scottsdale estate and business clients desired to overhaul their estate plan.  DeAngelis Legal worked with the clients and their investment advisor to rework goals and objectives, including restructuring the terms of the gifts to their children, evaluating insurance needs and incorporating large gifts to charitable organizations.  DeAngelis Legal prepared the documents updating their plan to make it consistent with their desires and implemented the plan.
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Gilbert estate planning and business client got married and required an update to her estate plan to include her new spouse.  DeAngelis Legal worked with the client on an appropriate division of her assets between her new spouse and her children from a previous marriage at death in accordance with her desires.  DeAngelis Legal prepared the updated documents and a Post-Marital Agreement with the new spouse to clarify each spouse’s rights and obligations upon divorce and death.
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Residential real estate continues to be a significant asset in most estates we plan.  It also continues to cause considerable issues with estates and trusts we administer.  Whether caused by poor financial planning, poor estate planning or poor execution, the result is always the same – increased family discord, frustration and expense during administration after death.   The solution is to get good advice tailored to your personal circumstances.   Consider the remainder of this article a variety pack of issues related to residential real estate, including fraud, co-ownership, financing and titling issues.
Combating Fraud.
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Estate Planning Update
July 2023

  • 2023 Annual Gift Tax Exclusion: increased to $17,000 per donor, per donee.
  • 2023 Gift and Estate Tax Exemption: increased to $12,920,000 per donor through 2025, see #6, an increase of $860,000.
  • Marital Deduction for Transfers to U.S. Spouse: remains unlimited.
  • 2023 Generation Skipping Tax Exclusion: increased to $12,920,000 per donor through 2025, see #6.
  • Top rate for Federal Estate, Gift and Generation Skipping Taxes: 40%.
  • National Topics: The current Gift and Estate Tax Exemption is doubled to get to the amounts set forth above and the question remains, will the doubling be (a) extended beyond

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    Long time physician client decided to pursue temporary short term “locum tenens” work in lieu of W-2 employment at a hospital. DeAngelis Legal reviewed the client’s objectives, evaluated alternative forms of entity (corporation, llc, or llp) and prepared and filed the documentation necessary to form an Arizona corporation with a Subchapter “S” election. The client’s desire for creditor protection, anticipated revenue together with the desire to work in multiple states ultimately led to the decision to use the S-corporation. For more information on choice of entity see Choice of Entity.
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    Young Scottsdale couple accumulated several businesses and real estate properties owned by four different entities formed in three different states. DeAngelis Legal reviewed each entity’s purpose, tax records, formation documents and contact information and prepared the documents necessary to conform with how the entities were treated for income tax purposes, update each entity’s contact information with each state and update the Arizona entity’s operating agreement to reflect current Arizona LLC law. The corporate clean up will facilitate future loans and transactions, limit a creditor’s rights to exploit discrepancies in the records, limit exposure under IRS audits and facilitate administration upon
    Continue Reading June 2023 Corporate Entity Review and Update

    At the end of the administration of a trust, the title company required the trustee to open a probate and obtain letters of personal representative before closing. This is the second matter in as many months where DeAngelis Legal has had to deal with simple mistakes that caused significant delays and additional expenses in trust administration. For the first two mistakes see [insert link]. Here, DeAngelis Legal reviewed the estate plan and title and determined that even though the decedent fully funded his trust at the time of creation, prior to his death he transferred the property into his personal
    Continue Reading June 2023 Informal Probate

    Trustee of a large estate identified a small investment account that was not transferred to the decedent’s revocable trust during his lifetime (mistake #1).  Unfortunately, while making a copy of his will prior to his death the decedent had mixed the pages of the original and the copy (mistake 2), so while we had the original signature page, the first page looked a copy and was rejected by the Probate Court.  Without the original will, formal probate (the process of judicially determining the validity of the will) was required.  DeAngelis Legal prepared the pleadings and ancillary documents to establish that
    Continue Reading May 2023 Formal Probate

    Telecommunication client reviewed and updated its form agreement with vendors. DeAngelis Legal reviewed and revised the agreement. As part of its review, DeAngelis Legal reviewed the client’s master agreement with significant customers, interviewed operations personnel to identify issues and reviewed feedback from vendors and modified the agreement. The result being an agreement that more accurately addressed significant issues such as the vendor’s obligations, representations and warranties, insurance and indemnity.
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    A recently re-married Scottsdale client desired to define the financial relationship with their spouse. DeAngelis Legal met with the client identifying common issues and solutions and drafted a comprehensive agreement addressing issues such as the waiver of community property laws, the waiver of the obligation to provide support, restricting gifts and joint debts, and providing household maintenance and bequests at death.
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    A new Arizona resident desired to move their real estate business to Arizona from out of state. DeAngelis Legal worked with the client to evaluate alternative business structures, balancing income tax, estate tax and liability concerns. DeAngelis Legal drafted the new entities, domesticated entities from their home state and authorized other entities to do business in Arizona.
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    Why do we spend so much time and energy on updating corporate records? Soon after the entity is created, business owners move on to growing their business and often fail to pay attention to the details of maintaining proper corporate records.  As a non-priority item, these tasks get pushed down and forgotten until an event occurs for which they are needed.  What kind of events?  Common examples include opening a new bank account, obtaining a loan, selling the business, being audited by the IRS, a partner dispute, litigation, divorce, death or disability.  All of these events will entail a review
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    A long-time Scottsdale closely held business owner desired to purchase a family member’s minority interest in the business.  DeAngelis Legal worked with the buyer to evaluate alternatives and prepare the documents to evidence the transaction.  The documents included an interest purchase agreement, promissory note, consent of the other members, assignment of interest and amendments to the entity’s articles and operating agreement.
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