|
|
|
IN THIS ISSUE
DEFENSE OF THE
PRESLEY ESTATE
RMDs BEFORE ROLLOVERS
THE SOCIAL SECURITY DATABASE
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
| | |
It is hard to believe that Garden State Trust Company was granted permission to provide our services to Pennsylvanians 5 years ago. Although Pennsylvania has many nicknames, the most well-known may be Keystone State. You may wonder what a keystone is. A keystone (or capstone) is the part of an arch that is needed to keep the other stones from falling, and the last piece of the puzzle to be placed in position.
Without getting overly technical, what is important to understand is that without the keystone, the arch would fall. The reason that an arch can hold more weight is because of how force is being redirected by the wedge structure of the blocks comprising the arch. The pressure from the weight pushes the stones against each other, reinforcing the structure by creating diagonal force that's then redirected into the columns or foundation. The keystone is the last piece added in the center that locks everything in position so it can start handling that pressure.
At Garden State Trust Company, we're not masons or architects, but we do like to think of ourselves as the keystone for all of your trust and estate planning needs. We bring all the pieces of your estate plan together and take on the pressure of overseeing it all, so you don't have to go it alone. We want our clients to feel secure in the knowledge that they have a trusted team of experienced professionals who are working diligently to maintain that solid foundation for them and their families.
We are proud to be fiduciaries who are and should be held to the highest legal standard, whether we are acting as executor of your will, trustee of your trust or both. We always place our client's interests first. It is our job to bring together the many different small duties that all support each other and push each other to create that arch, which in this case is a solid workable holistic plan.
Once the plan is in place we as the keystone hold the plan together. As a fiduciary, we are legally obligated to perform many specific duties. Here are some of the duties that comprise the arch we build for our clients:
-
Duty to administer a trust by its terms. Every trust agreement should make plain the purposes of the trust, as they provide the critical benchmarks for evaluating the trustee's actions.
-
Duty of skill and care. A high standard of performance is required, even if an amateur is named who has no prior experience as a trustee.
-
Duty to give notices. Notices may concern legal rights of the trust beneficiaries, such as a power to make withdrawals, or they may cover such ministerial matters as designating a successor trustee or an agent to assist in trust administration.
-
Duty to account. A written accounting of the assets, liabilities, receipts and disbursements of the trust must be provided to the beneficiaries regularly.
-
Duty of impartiality. The trustee must not favor one beneficiary over another, unless the trust document directs that providing for a particular beneficiary is a principal purpose of the trust.
-
Duty to invest. Trust assets must not be left idle. In addition to making the trust investments, the trustee has a duty to diversify the investments and develop an asset allocation plan.
-
Duty of confidentiality. Normally, the terms of a trust, the identity of its beneficiaries and their respective interests, and the nature of the trust assets cannot be disclosed to anyone except the beneficiaries and those who need such information in order to be able to administer the trust.
We look forward to continuing to provide our services to both New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents, and act as the supportive structure for them and their families for many years to come.
| | MONTHLY QUESTION & ANSWER | | |
Q. I've made a non-deductible contribution to my IRA this year. Are there any special worries about this contribution?
A. You've put after-tax dollars into this IRA, so you must take steps to be certain that you don't pay income tax on these dollars again when you take distributions. The burden of proof for this is on the taxpayer.
The way to establish the tax basis of the IRA with non-deductible contributions is to file Form 8606 with your tax return for the year in which the contribution is made. This puts the data into the hands of the IRS. It's the same Form that is used to alert the IRS to distributions from Roth IRAs, which are potentially tax free.
You must save copies of all the Forms 8606 that you file during your working years. You should also keep copies of year-end account statements and contribution confirmation documents. You may want to keep a running total of your after-tax contributions. We suggest keeping both digital and physical copies of all this information.
You should share this information with your spouse and your financial advisors and let them know where you keep your financial records.
(March 2025)
© 2025 M.A. Co. All rights reserved.
HAVE A QUESTION ON TRUSTS, WILLS, OR INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT?
| | For general informational purposes only. This information does not constitute legal advice. | | |
One of the fundamental duties in estate settlement is for the executor to carefully examine claims made against the estate, paying the valid ones and defending against the false ones. In the Informational Article, Defense of the Presley Estate read how a foolhardy claim and attempted theft of Graceland was foiled.
Months ago, my twin granddaughters gave me a book, Tell Me Your Life Story, GRANDPA, that I have started to complete. In one of this month's Of Interest articles, Leave Your Life Story as a Legacy For Your Heirs, you will find resources on how to leave your life story as a legacy.
Spring begins on March 20th and ends on June 20th. I think everyone can appreciate what Mark Twain had to say about Springtime, "In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours."
Hoping you enjoy the beginning of Spring next week.
Sincerely,
| | Defense of the Presley Estate | | |
One of the fundamental duties in estate settlement is for the executor to carefully examine claims made against the estate, paying the valid ones and defending against the false ones.
Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, died January 12, 2023. She was the sole heir of Elvis Presley, so her fortune was substantial, much of it held in Lisa's Irrevocable Trust.
Following her death, a claim was made that Lisa had borrowed $3.8 million from Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC, using Graceland as collateral. A creditor's claim was filed in California, a deed of trust was filed in Memphis, and a foreclosure notice on Graceland. Lisa's oldest daughter (Elvis' granddaughter), Riley Keough filed suit to stop the foreclosure sale.
A subsequent investigation determined that the supposed lender was not a real company. A key document had been notarized by a Florida notary, but she reported that she had never met Lisa Marie, had never notarized any document signed by Lisa Marie, and had no idea how her signature had been applied to the document.
Lisa Jeanine Findley of Missouri was arrested on August 16, 2024, for the fraudulent claims against Presley's estate. According to the indictment, Findley had posed as three different people in furtherance of the scam, creating the false documents used to try to squeeze a settlement from the estate. On February 25, 2025, Findley pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud. A charge of aggravated identity theft was dropped. She will be sentenced on June 18.
The brazenness of this claim is unusual, but the executor of an estate must be prepared for any eventuality. That's why choosing the right executor is so important for family financial security.
(March 2025)
© 2025 M.A. Co. All rights reserved.
| | |
According to a 2024 research report from the Investment Company Institute, 62% of U.S. household have IRAs that have been funded with rollovers from employer plans. An estimated $595 billion worth of such rollovers occurred in 2020. Care needs to be taken that these transactions are handled properly, to avoid unexpected tax traps.
Once a taxpayer reaches age 73, he or she must take Require Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from tax advantaged retirement accounts. The first dollars being distributed from the account are considered to be RMDs.
Example. Taxpayer turns 73 this year, and plans to retire. In anticipation of this happy event, Taxpayer arranges to have his entire 401(k) balance rolled over into an IRA. He makes the smart choice of have a direct rollover to the IRA custodian, avoiding the need for withholding taxes on the transfer. However, Taxpayer inadvertently has now rolled his RMD into his IRA, which is an excess IRA contribution.
The better way. Taxpayer determines that his RMD will be $40,000 this year. He orders a distribution to himself of the entire amount of the RMD, then orders the rollover of the balance of the account. With this approach, there is no question of even a temporary excess IRA contribution..
(March 2025)
© 2025 M.A. Co. All rights reserved.
| | The Social Security Database | | |
Elon Musk has reported that there are 20.8 million centenarians in the Social Security database who are not marked as deceased. This is not actually a new problem, according to an analysis by Justin Fox published by wealthmanagement.com (https://www.wealthmanagement.com/retirement/the-truth-about-social-security-and-dead-people). The Inspector General has been trying to make certain that dead people are not on the benefit rolls for more than a decade. Earlier audits have found a small number of inappropriate benefit payouts, but for the most part the millions of persons not marked as dead are not collecting benefits. Hence, the cost of updating the records is hard to justify when it won't have a material effect on the benefits being paid.
However, Fox noted that there is a different cost to not updating records properly. The Social Security numbers of inactive accounts are available to enable identity theft. "Between 2006 and 2011, 66,920 of the Social Security numbers registered to people born in 1901 or earlier had wages, tips, and self-employment income associated with them -- meaning that people born a lot more recently than that, and probably lacking in authorization to work in the US, had used them to get jobs. Between 2016 and 2020, 139,211 of the numbers registered to people born in 1920 or earlier did." These folks reported $11.6 billion in taxable income, which implies that they paid roughly $1.4 billion in payroll taxes. That is a windfall for the Social Security Trust Funds, as those Social Security numbers will never trigger benefit payments.
(March 2025)
© 2025 M.A. Co. All rights reserved.
| | |
WALL - MAIN OFFICE
732-255-5000
SOUTH JERSEY / PHILADELPHIA REGION
856-281-1300
| | |
LEBANON REGION
908-287-7188
LINWOOD / SOUTH JERSEY REGION
856-281-1300
| | Because of the rapidly changing nature of tax, legal or accounting rules and our reliance on outside sources, Garden State Trust Company makes no warranty or guarantee of the accuracy or reliability of information contained herein nor do we take responsibility for any decision made or action taken by you in reliance upon information provided here or at other sites to which we link. ©2025. All rights reserved. | | | | |
