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Karen D. Yardley

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Karen D. Yardley practices in the areas of estate planning, trust administration and probate. Karen’s estate planning practice includes structuring complex estate plans for high net worth families, the preparation of wills, complex trusts, irrevocable insurance trusts, grantor retained interest trusts and other estate planning documents, structuring and creating family owned businesses such as family limited partnerships and limited liability companies and charitable planning, including the creation of charitable split interest trusts.

Karen’s estate planning practice also includes international estate planning, such as planning for U.S. citizens living abroad and non-citizens living in the U.S., and pre-immigration planning and structuring gifts from non-resident aliens to U.S. residents.

Karen’s estate administration practice includes post-death trust administration, post-mortem tax planning, and probate.

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Portability refers to the ability of a surviving spouse, to make use of a deceased spouse’s unused estate tax exclusion amount (DSUE amount).  Portability was intended to simplify estate planning for married couples by eliminating the need for a bypass trust.  However, in order to preserve the DSUE amount the surviving spouse must comply with a complex set of rules, including filing a federal estate tax return for the decedent even though one would not otherwise be required.  Portability is not a substitute for traditional estate planning, particularly for high net worth individuals. However, it may prevent an otherwise unused DSUE amount from being completely lost.
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Continue Reading Portability of the Estate and Gift Tax Exclusion – How Does it Work?