Texas Estate Planning

Latest on the Queen of Soul’s Estate

The IRS said that Aretha Franklin’s estate owed more than $7.8 million in unpaid income taxes, interest and penalties from 2010 to 2017.
The Detroit Free Press’ recent article entitled “Aretha Franklin estate reaches deal with IRS to pay off claimed $7.8 million tax debt” reports a big breakthrough. It seems that Franklin’s four sons and the IRS have reached a settlement that would expedite the payment of the remaining tax burden and allow her sons access to some of the money from their late mother’s fortune.
Aretha’s heirs have not yet inherited anything from the estate because of the IRS situation.
In a petition filed February 19 in Oakland County Probate Court, the estate said the proposed arrangement includes an immediate $800,000 payment to the IRS. This is despite the fact that the estate continues to question the total tax bill owed.
Since her death, Franklin’s estate has been steadily paying on the tax debt, as well as the constantly growing interest, as it appeals the IRS’s claimed total. As of December 2020, the balance was $4.75 million.
The new petition says the final IRS bill will be determined “by agreement or litigation.”
The agreement between the estate and the IRS details the way in which Aretha’s posthumous revenue will be distributed, until the tax debt is resolved. Backdated to January 1 of this year, it includes new income from song royalties, licensing agreements and other money streams. This agreement states that 45% of quarterly revenue will go toward the existing IRS balance. 40% would also be earmarked for an escrow account to deal with the taxes due on the newly generated income. The other 15% of revenue would be used for managing the estate.
The agreement also provides an immediate $50,000 payment to each of Franklin’s four sons and approves quarterly cash payouts to them. This proposed deal, authorized by 10 attorneys representing the sons, was submitted to the court by attorney Reginald Turner. The Detroit lawyer and incoming American Bar Association president was appointed last year as temporary personal representative of the Franklin estate. The agreement has to be approved by Judge Jennifer Callaghan to be executable.
Franklin died in August 2018, after a long battle with cancer.
Reference: Detroit Free Press (March 1, 2021) “Aretha Franklin estate reaches deal with IRS to pay off claimed $7.8 million tax debt”

Why Is Family of a Texas Governor Fighting over His Estate?

Dolph Briscoe Jr. was a Texas rancher and businessman and was the 41st Governor of Texas between 1973 and 1979. His oldest child, Janey Briscoe Marmion, established the foundation with her father to honor her only child, Kate, who died in 2008 at the age of 20.
The Uvalde Leader-News’ recent article entitled “Briscoe family lawsuit targets Marmion’s will” reports that Marmion’s original will filed in 2011 directed her assets to be placed in a revocable trust.
The foundation was to have received income from half of her wealth for 22 years. The rest was directed to the children of her brother Chip Briscoe and those of her sister Cele Carpenter of Dallas.
However, a second will executed by Marmion in 2014 and admitted to probate in the County Court in December 2018— a month and a day after her death—calls for three trusts, including two child’s trusts created by her father and a generation-skipping trust (GST). A GST is a type of trust agreement in which the contributed assets are transferred to the grantor's grandchildren, "skipping" the next generation (the grantor's children).
Marmion created the Janey Marmion Briscoe GST Trust, dated November 1, 2012, in which she gave a third of her assets to the foundation and the other two-thirds to be divided equally between Chip Briscoe’s sons.
Carpenter’s three children filed suit in Dallas and in Uvalde County last year challenging the validity of the 2014 will and contesting the probate.
Their complaint alleges that Marmion intended to include the three as beneficiaries, in addition to Chip’s two sons, and that the situation creates a disproportionate inheritance in favor of the Briscoe men.
The amount in question is more than $500 million, since the former Texas governor’s estate was estimated by Forbes to be worth as much as $1.3 billion in 2015. Governor Briscoe died in Uvalde in 2010 at the age of 87.
Reference: Uvalde (TX) Leader-News (March 11, 2021) “Briscoe family lawsuit targets Marmion’s will”

Should a Trust Be Part of My Estate Plan?

A revocable trust can be a wise choice for managing your assets, says nj.com’s recent article entitled “What are the advantages of putting assets into a trust?”
A revocable trust is a type of trust that can be changed once it is executed by the creator of the trust, known as the grantor. During the life of the trust, income earned is distributed to the grantor. After his or her death, the trust assets transfer to the beneficiaries of the trust.
A revocable trust can be advantageous because it has flexibility and provides this income stream and full access to the trust principal by the living grantor (also known as the trustor).
If you are the grantor, you can act as trustee, by yourself or with another as co-trustee.
When you no longer want to manage, or when you’re unable to manage your affairs, the co-trustee or a successor trustee can take over all of the duties.
If you didn’t put your assets in a revocable trust, you’d need to appoint an agent under a durable power of attorney to handle your financial affairs, if you become incapacitated.
However, some financial institutions would rather do business with a trustee instead of an agent under a power of attorney.
At your death, if all of your assets are in trust, your family can avoid the probate process. The trustee continues to manage the trust assets pursuant to the terms of the trust document. Those instructions do not need to be recorded any court in most jurisdictions.
Unlike a will, which is recorded with the government once it is probated, a trust is not a public document in most jurisdictions. Therefore, privacy is another advantage of a trust.
Finally, in states where an inheritance tax return is required, a revocable trust also avoids the need to obtain tax waivers, which are issued by the state to release any tax liens, upon death.
However, there are some downsides to putting assets into a trust.
First, the expense of creating a trust will be more than a simple will, and you would still need a will in the event you did not place everything in the trust during your lifetime or upon your death by a beneficiary designation.
Sometimes, having all of your assets in trust can also be more costly or cumbersome. For instance, insurance may be more expensive when an asset is in the trust.
Reference: nj.com (March 17, 2021) “What are the advantages of putting assets into a trust?”

What Is Prince Harry’s Inheritance from His Mum, Princess Diana?

“I have what my mum left me and without that we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” he said of his and Meghan Markle’s move to the United States.
The Independent’s recent article entitled “Meghan and Harry: How much did Diana leave in inheritance for Harry?” reports that Harry’s comment in the recent interview with his wife Meghan had many viewers who tuned in wondering how much Harry’s mother had left him, after her tragic death at the age of 36.
“It’s like she saw it coming and she’s been with us through this whole process,” Harry said
Diana left an estate of roughly $30 million, but at least a third of that was paid in inheritance tax, leaving nearly $18 million, according to reports. The sum was split equally between William and younger brother Harry. They were 15 and 12, when Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997.
It is said that the funds were invested by royal advisers, which saw its value go up to around $28 million by the time her sons reached the age when they were able to access it. Upon reaching 25, William and Harry were entitled to all of the income of their share. However, prior to this, the income could be paid at the trustees’ discretion.
The trustees of Princess Diana’s estate had the authority to pay out the assets to William and Harry at any time, but when they each turned 30, they were able to request their full share of the capital, rather than only receiving the interest on that sum.
Diana’s estate was comprised of stocks and shares, jewelry, her multi-million-pound divorce settlement from the boys’ father, Prince Charles, as well as her clothing and personal items. In addition, William and Harry’s great-grandmother, the Queen Mother, also reportedly left them approximately $20 million to divide between them.
Meghan has been said to enter her marriage with around $5 million in earnings from her acting career, which included starring in the USA Network drama, “Suits.”
In September 2020, news was announced that the couple had signed a reported multi-million-dollar deal with Netflix to produce exclusive content, such as documentaries, docuseries, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming.
More recently, Harry and Meghan agreed to a deal with Spotify to create podcast content.
Reference: The Independent (March 9, 2021) “Meghan and Harry: How much did Diana leave in inheritance for Harry?”

The Latest on the Denver Broncos and Late Owner Pat Bowlen’s Trust

The Denver Post’s recent article entitled “Broncos ask Denver County District Court to confirm right-of-first-refusal is terminated” says that the battle over the Denver Broncos football team is far from over, and what Pat Bowlen intended in his trust may not come to pass.
After Pat Bowlen died in 2019 at age 75 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, his two oldest daughters placed themselves at risk of being disinherited by challenging their father’s trust. The trust is tasked with choosing the next controlling owner of the Denver Broncos, a pro football franchise valued at more than $2.5 billion.
“This lawsuit is a proactive, necessary step to ensure an efficient transition of ownership, whether the team remains in the Bowlen family or is sold,” long-time Bowlen attorney Dan Reilly said in a statement. “We are confident that the court will find the right of first refusal is no longer enforceable, consistent with Colorado law and the intentions of Pat Bowlen and Edgar Kaiser in their written agreement more than 36 years ago.”
So, if the Broncos’ next controlling owner is Pat’s daughter Brittany, the preferred choice of the trustees, or if the team is sold to an outside buyer, they should be able to move forward without interference from Kaiser’s camp. Kaiser died in January 2012.
Even if this lawsuit drags on, it will not cause a delay in the Arapahoe County District Court battle between Bowlen’s daughters Beth Bowlen Wallace and Amie Klemmer and the trustees who want to invalidate the 2009 trust on the grounds that Pat did not have the capacity to sign his estate-planning documents.
This part of the Broncos ownership soap opera began in May 2020, when an attorney sent the Broncos counsel a letter stating that his client be sent “notice,” if the team named a new controlling owner or was sold. When Kaiser sold 60.8% of the Broncos to Bowlen in 1984, a right of first refusal was included in the agreement. A year later, Bowlen bought the other 39.2% from John Adams and Tim Borden for $20 million.
In 1998, Bowlen offered retired quarterback John Elway the chance to buy 10% of the team for $15 million. However, Kaiser opposed, saying Bowlen had to offer any piece of the Broncos to him before he offered it to another party. The courts ruled in Bowlen’s favor, even though Elway didn’t take him up on the offer. The court said the right of first refusal only applied to the 60.8% ownership interest that Pat purchased from Kaiser. However, Pat’s win didn’t totally eliminate the right of first refusal, which gave Kaiser 14 days to decide whether to buy the team if Bowlen found a buyer.
Reference: Denver Post (Jan. 26, 2021) “Broncos ask Denver County District Court to confirm right-of-first-refusal is terminated”

If My Estate Is the Beneficiary of My IRA, How Is It Taxed?

The named beneficiary of an IRA can have important tax consequences, says nj.com’s recent article entitled “How is tax paid when an estate is the beneficiary of an IRA?”
If an estate is named the beneficiary of an IRA, or if there’s no designated beneficiary, the estate is usually designated beneficiary by default. In that case, the IRA must be paid to the estate. As a result, the account owner’s will or the state law (if there was no will and the owner died intestate) would determine who’d inherit the IRA.
An individual retirement account or “IRA” is a tax-advantaged account that people can use to save and invest for retirement.
There are several types of IRAs—Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs. Each one of these has its own distinct rules regarding eligibility, taxation and withdrawals. However, with any, if you withdraw money from an IRA before age 59½, you’re usually subject to an early-withdrawal penalty of 10%.
A designated beneficiary is an individual who inherits the balance of an individual retirement account (IRA) or after the death of the asset's owner.
However, if a “non-individual” is the beneficiary of an IRA, the funds must be distributed within five years, if the account owner died before his/her required beginning date for distributions, which was changed to age 72 last year when Congress passed the SECURE Act.
If the owner dies after his/her required beginning date, the account must then be distributed over his/her remaining single life expectancy.
The income tax on these distributions is payable by the estate. A compressed tax bracket is used.
As such, the highest tax rate of 37% is paid on this income when total income of the estate reaches $12,950.
For individuals, the 37% tax bracket isn’t reached until income is above $518,400 or $622,050 if filing as married.
Therefore, you can see why it’s not wise to leave your IRA to your estate. It’s not tax-efficient and generally should be avoided.
Reference: nj.com (Feb. 26, 2021) “How is tax paid when an estate is the beneficiary of an IRA?”

The Latest on the Denver Broncos and Late Owner Pat Bowlen’s Trust

The Denver Post’s recent article entitled “Broncos ask Denver County District Court to confirm right-of-first-refusal is terminated” says that the battle over the Denver Broncos football team is far from over, and what Pat Bowlen intended in his trust may not come to pass.
After Pat Bowlen died in 2019 at age 75 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, his two oldest daughters placed themselves at risk of being disinherited by challenging their father’s trust. The trust is tasked with choosing the next controlling owner of the Denver Broncos, a pro football franchise valued at more than $2.5 billion.
“This lawsuit is a proactive, necessary step to ensure an efficient transition of ownership, whether the team remains in the Bowlen family or is sold,” long-time Bowlen attorney Dan Reilly said in a statement. “We are confident that the court will find the right of first refusal is no longer enforceable, consistent with Colorado law and the intentions of Pat Bowlen and Edgar Kaiser in their written agreement more than 36 years ago.”
So, if the Broncos’ next controlling owner is Pat’s daughter Brittany, the preferred choice of the trustees, or if the team is sold to an outside buyer, they should be able to move forward without interference from Kaiser’s camp. Kaiser died in January 2012.
Even if this lawsuit drags on, it will not cause a delay in the Arapahoe County District Court battle between Bowlen’s daughters Beth Bowlen Wallace and Amie Klemmer and the trustees who want to invalidate the 2009 trust on the grounds that Pat did not have the capacity to sign his estate-planning documents.
This part of the Broncos ownership soap opera began in May 2020, when an attorney sent the Broncos counsel a letter stating that his client be sent “notice,” if the team named a new controlling owner or was sold. When Kaiser sold 60.8% of the Broncos to Bowlen in 1984, a right of first refusal was included in the agreement. A year later, Bowlen bought the other 39.2% from John Adams and Tim Borden for $20 million.
In 1998, Bowlen offered retired quarterback John Elway the chance to buy 10% of the team for $15 million. However, Kaiser opposed, saying Bowlen had to offer any piece of the Broncos to him before he offered it to another party. The courts ruled in Bowlen’s favor, even though Elway didn’t take him up on the offer. The court said the right of first refusal only applied to the 60.8% ownership interest that Pat purchased from Kaiser. However, Pat’s win didn’t totally eliminate the right of first refusal, which gave Kaiser 14 days to decide whether to buy the team if Bowlen found a buyer.

Sound Like a Broken Record in Estate Planning?

After a year like the last, estate planning attorneys may sound like a broken record, repeating their message over and over again: No matter your age, wealth, or familial structure, you should have a last will and testament, powers of attorney and a health care proxy.
Everyone needs these documents, to protect wealth, children, spouses, family and yourself.
Wealth Advisor’s recent article entitled “2020 Concludes With Intestate Celebrity Estates” says that the execution of legal documents does have a financial cost. This can keep some people from talking to an experienced estate planning attorney. Others say they are simply too busy to take care of the matter, so they delay. There are other people don’t want to talk about issues of sickness and mortality because they just can’t bring themselves to think about these important estate planning documents.
It doesn’t matter who you are, these types of issues are seen with all kinds of people. Recently, we’ve learned that several celebrities died intestate or without a last will and testament. For example, Argentinian soccer great Diego Armando Maradona died in November at the age of 60. He had a fortune including real estate, financial assets and jewelry, but his life was filled with drama. Diego fathered eight children from six different partners but signed no last will and testament. Fighting among his many heirs is expected, especially with his large estate. Diego said publicly that he wanted to donate his entire estate and not leave his children anything. However, he died of a heart attack before putting this plan in place. Therefore his next-of-kin, not the charities, received his assets.
Another notable person who died intestate recently is former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who died at age 46. His estate is valued at $840 million. Hsieh was survived by his two brothers and his parents. He recently purchased eight houses in Park City, Utah, so this purchase of real estate across state lines will make the administration of his estate even more complicated without a last will and testament or a trust.
Finally, actor Chadwick Boseman died intestate at age 43, after a long battle with colon cancer. His wife, Simone Ledward, petitioned the California courts to be named the administrator of his estate. The couple married in early 2020. As a result, she was qualified to administer and receive from his estate. He had no children, so under California probate law, she gets the entire estate.
These recent deaths of three celebrities, none of whom were elderly, show the need for individuals of all ages, backgrounds and wealth to address their estate plans and not put it off.
Reference: Wealth Advisor (Jan. 19, 2020) “2020 Concludes With Intestate Celebrity Estates”

What are the Scariest Statistics for Retirement?

Think Advisor’s recent article entitled “11 Scariest Retirement Statistics: 2020” says that there is a lack of preparation, savings difficulty and general uncertainty that American retirees are facing. Here are those scary stats:
1. Just a quarter of Americans are on a trajectory to maintain their lifestyles in retirement. The other 75% will need to work longer, move to lower-cost housing and cut spending to maintain their standard of living, largely due to the coronavirus downturn.
2. The Social Security trust funds would be empty by 2023, without the payroll tax. While President Trump let employers temporarily defer the employee portion of payroll taxes, he said the deferred taxes could later be forgiven, or the cut made permanent. When he signed the order, he vowed to “terminate the tax,” if reelected. Republican lawmakers subsequently debuted a plan to fund any shortfalls from the Treasury.
3. Social Security benefits will be decreased by 21% if the trust fund runs out. Congress will have to intercede, or it could happen 10 years from now, if not sooner.
4. Those born in 1960 will have a big problem because of the complicated formula the Social Security Administration uses to calculate benefits. Pre-retirees born in 1960 will see a nearly 15% cut to their lifetime benefits from Social Security when it’s time to collect. If the pandemic suppresses the economy into 2022, those cuts will impact more pre-retirees. The impact to their Social Security benefits will also be permanent.
5. The 2021 Social Security cost of living adjustment, or COLA, will be just 1.3%. Retirees should note that rising health care costs and a potential 6% increase in Medicare Part B premiums may absorb that benefit increase.
6. More than 50% of Americans think the economy is worse now than in 2008, with 51% of Americans seeing the COVID slowdown as worse than the 2008 recession. A survey from Edelman Financial Engines also found that 26% had withdrawn money from retirement or savings for living expenses.
7. About 60% of retirement savers have fallen behind, according to a TIAA study. Among these, 30% said it was directly due to the pandemic.
8. Internet searches for “move out of the U.S.” have increased 16 times. International Living magazine says it had seen the jump in search traffic around the phrase since May. A total of 20% of respondents in a survey it conducted also said they wanted to move due to the pandemic. However, just 45% cited a desire to save money.
9. Approximately 42% of investors sold stock, and most of them (88%) of them regretted it. In response to the drop in stocks in mid-March last year, 42% of investors in a survey by MagnifyMoney sold at least one stock and 24% sold all their holdings. About 69% of those who sold stock at the start of the pandemic greatly regretted it, and 19% said they were somewhat regretful.
10. Roughly 80% of older Americans don’t understand retirement planning and don’t know the basics of how to successfully plan for a financially secure retirement, according to a study by The American College of Financial Services. The survey also found only 30% of respondents had a plan in place to fund long-term care needs, and just one in four actually had long-term care insurance.
11. About 3 million workers may have been driven into early retirement due to the pandemic. From March to August of 2020, 2.8 million older workers might have been pushed out of their jobs prematurely, with economic turmoil and poor health making it hard for them to resume their careers elsewhere, according to by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School. The report found that 38% of unemployed older adults stopped looking for work and left the workforce, and an additional 1.1 million were expected to do likewise.
Reference: Think Advisor (Oct. 30, 2020) “11 Scariest Retirement Statistics: 2020”

What’s in Benjamin de Rothschild’s Estate?

Edmond de Rothschild Holding SA described Benjamin as a “visionary entrepreneur, passionate about finance, speed, sailing and automobiles.” He died recently at 57 of a heart attack, according to Wealth Advisor’s recent article entitled “Billionaire Benjamin De Rothschild, Heir To Storied Banking Fortune, Dies At 57.”
A member of one of Europe’s most famous banking families, Benjamin de Rothschild inherited a branch of the family bank that concentrated in private wealth management. The Edmond de Rothschild group, founded in 1953 by Edmon Adolphe de Rothschild, manages more than $190 billion in assets and employs 2,600 people in 32 locations around the world. Forbes estimates that Benjamin was worth about $1.4 billion at the time of his death, with his ownership of Edmond de Rothschild Holding SA accounting for most of his fortune.
Benjamin is survived by four daughters — Alice, Eve, Olivia, Naomi — and his widow, Ariane, who has run the Rothschild Group with him for several years.
Benjamin was a descendent of James de Rothschild, the founder of the French branch of the Rothschild family and one of five brothers who were sent across Europe by founding father, Mayer Amschel in the early 1800s. In 1953, Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild, the great-grandson of James de Rothschild, formed the branch of the bank is called Edmond de Rothschild. This branch of the bank is very different from the more famous Rothschild & Co that is best known for its part in drafting the rulebook for the international bond market before WWI.
Benjamin De Rothschild had been in control of the banking concern created by his father since 1997 and worked to simplify its structure after delisting.
As of the end of 2019, Edmond de Rothschild Holding SA had $194 billion in assets with activities in 15 countries.
In 2018, after battling another branch of the family over the use of the family name, the two factions announced they’d reached an agreement on the use of their respective brands, after litigation in 2015 from Benjamin concerning the Rothschild name in private banking.
Since 2015, Edmond de Rothschild has been run by Ariane, Benjamin’s wife. This was a decisive turn from the last will and testament of founder Mayer Amschel. He wrote famously in 1812 that the Rothschild business should pass between male heirs and “belong to my sons exclusively.”
The banker donated generously to Israel, including $22 million for the country’s effort to combat the coronavirus.

Reference: Wealth Advisor (Jan. 26, 2021) “Billionaire Benjamin De Rothschild, Heir To Storied Banking Fortune, Dies At 57”

What Is Status of Larry King’s Handwritten Will?

Larry King's widow Shawn is set to go to court over a recently discovered hand-written will that cuts her out of a share of his fortune.
Fox News reports in the article entitled “Larry King's widow Shawn King plans to contest star's will in court” after King's handwritten will was discovered. The will is said to say that his $2 million estate would be divided among his five children.
The document is said to have been drafted on October 17, 2019—just two months after Larry filed for divorce from Shawn. The new will doesn’t mention her at all and also lists his now-deceased children Chaia and Andy as beneficiaries. This will was written a few months before the loss of 65-year-old Andy and 51-year-old Chaia, who died within weeks of each other.
Larry’s three remaining children -- Larry King, Jr., 59, Cannon, 20, and Chance, 21 -- were also named. Cannon and Chance are King’s children with Shawn. However, Shawn contends that there was already a plan in place between she and King that wasn’t reflected in the alleged document.
"We had a very watertight family estate plan," she told Page Six of a plan she and her husband drew up "as a couple" in 2015.
"It still exists, and it is the legitimate will. Period," she remarked. "And I fully believe it will hold up, and my attorneys are going to be filing a response, probably by the end of the day."
The handwritten will is complicated by the deaths of his children in 2020; in addition, Larry also told Page Six before his death that he and Shawn had once again become close. However, it is not known if the divorce was still moving forward.
Shawn also said that she and her husband spoke daily and claimed she was never made aware of an amendment to his will.
"It beats me!" she said when asked why she thinks Larry drafted the new document.
Their two sons were also "shocked" to hear about the change, she said, and claimed they "are not happy about this."
Shawn also said she thinks someone exerted influence over the broadcast legend to have him write the new will, although offered no additional evidence of this contention.
"Based on the timeline, it just doesn’t make sense," she said, noting that she doesn't believe he would have cut her out due to the filing of divorce papers.
According to People magazine, Larry King allegedly wrote in the document, "This is my Last Will & Testament. It should replace all previous writings. In the event of my death, any day after the above date, I want 100% of my funds to be divided equally among my children Andy, Chaia, Larry Jr., Chance & Cannon."
It looks like under the current will, Shawn would likely get around $300,000 after the $2 million estate was divided among King's sons and presumably the survivors of his late children. However, she says it’s the principle.
Larry King's attorney said that while the firm has no comment on Shawn's position, they feel that "the will, which we will be asking the court to admit to probate on March 25th, reflects Larry’s intent to divide his estate equally among his children."