Howard Vigderman
Visit Attorney ProfileFederal Estate Tax Inflation-Adjustments for 2018
Throughout the federal tax code there are figures which are inflation-adjusted – meaning they go up when there is inflation and they go up more when there is more inflation. The adjusted figures for the coming year are generally announced in October of the current… Read More
IRS Withdraws Regulations Which Could Have Eliminated Valuation Discounts
The IRS has never been a fan of valuation discounts. These discounts allow the owner of a closely-held business to transfer an interest in the business to family members and others and, for gift and estate tax purposes, take a discount which reduces the value… Read More
Checklist of Tax and Non-Tax Considerations for Someone on His/Her Deathbed
I am often asked by family members of a loved one who is on his/her death bed what steps should be taken from an estate planning, tax and non-tax perspective that will make the individual more comfortable, save taxes, preserve assets and make settling the… Read More
Making Living Wills More Clear with a QR Code Link to a Video Personal Statement
They go by many names, living wills, advance directives for healthcare, healthcare powers of attorney and healthcare proxies. I usually call them advance directives for healthcare (and will use that term in this article) because I think that covers all the issues they address. There… Read More
Divorce Allowed to Partners In an Out-of-State Civil Union – A Piece of the Windsor Legacy
In a case of first impression in Pennsylvania entitled Neyman v. Buckley[1], the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the Commonwealth’s intermediate appellate court, held that a Pennsylvania Family Court has jurisdiction to grant a divorce to a same-sex couple residing in Pennsylvania who had entered into a… Read More
The Estate Tax Repeal Redux
A bit of tax history is in order. In 2001 President George W. Bush signed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 which eliminated what he had dubbed during his campaign the “death tax” … except it wasn’t a real repeal. Under… Read More
Will My Facebook Page Join Me In Heaven?
What happens to your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your online banking and brokerage accounts and your emails when you die? Who has access to these “digital assets” and who can use and control them or close them down? This issue has been the subject… Read More
New Jersey Abolishes Its Estate Tax
Since 2002 New Jersey has imposed one of the highest, if not the highest, estate tax among those states which continue to impose an estate tax. That is because its estate tax exemption of $675,000 was the smallest in the nation. That is no longer… Read More
Clinton Proposes Estate Tax Increase on Super-Rich
As reported in an article from today’s (September 23, 2016) Wall Street Journal, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has proposed an increase in the federal estate and gift tax. She would lower the federal estate tax exemption from the 2016 amount of $5,450,000 per individual… Read More
Estate Planning Isn’t Just About Dying
Over the course of thirty years as a trusts and estates lawyer I have drafted hundreds, maybe even thousands, of wills. After all, that is what estates lawyer do – we help our clients memorialize the disposition of their assets when we they die. Wills… Read More