estate planning - Law Offices of Steven M. Basche

Build flexibility into your estate plan with powers of appointment

There are several tools you can use to build flexibility into your estate plan. Flexibility is especially important now because of an uncertain estate planning environment. The federal gift and estate tax exemption currently is an inflation-adjusted $11.58 million (the highest it’s ever been) but it’s scheduled to drop to its pre-2018 level of $5 million (indexed […]

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Ducks In a Row?

Estate Planning / Steve

Covid-19 Update I understand the last few days and weeks have probably caused you some anxiety not just about the volatile financial markets, but also – maybe primarily- about your health and the health of those you love and care about. I’m an estate planning lawyer and I know having your “ducks in a row” can

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Fresh & Local: estate planning version.

Estate Planning / Steve

Phote by Sarah Pflug from Burst Keep your estate planning documents Fresh and Local I often get calls from people who have just moved to Connecticut and are wondering if they need to update or revise their estate planning documents. What I usually say is that under the full faith and credit provisions of the

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A Little Piece of Planning

Planning Stories / sbasche

If you watched the end of the Villanova – North Carolina NCAA Championship game Monday night you (a) saw a classic game; (b) with 4.7 seconds left and a timeout on the floor you were treated to the sight of Villanova’s 6’11’’ senior, Daniel Ochefu mopping the floor just below half-court. Ochefu took the mop

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A Family Estate Planning Problem (Part One)

Planning Stories / sbasche

Over the course of a few blog posts I’ll be designing an estate plan for several members of the sprawling Buckman family. They are pretty typical. You might even know them. Frank and Marilyn are in their mid-sixties and live in an upscale St. Louis suburb. Frank owns a thriving business, he is, to put

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The People vs OJ Simpson and Estate Planning

DIY Planning, Planning Stories, Uncategorized / sbasche

If you’ve been watching FX’s The People v. OJ Simpson – it’s mesmerizing despite having lived through it – you couldn’t help but be struck by the scene where a distressed Juice is getting ready to turn himself in. He’s high on a pill cocktail, off the rails upset at the prospect of no bail

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