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ARTICLE · 30 MARCH 2020

Planning Opportunities During Market Volatility: Finding The Silver Lining

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The currently depressed market and low interest rates present a once in a lifetime planning opportunity to transfer significant wealth to your family and other loved ones without the imposition

United StatesTax
Edward Renn
Edward Renn
Lawton C. Leung
Lawton C. Leung
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The currently depressed market and low interest rates present a once in a lifetime planning opportunity to transfer significant wealth to your family and other loved ones without the imposition of gift taxes. The vehicle to achieve this goal is a zeroed out Grantor Retained Annuity Trust, or “GRAT.”

You create a GRAT by transferring assets into a special type of irrevocable trust and retaining the right to annuity payments from the trust for a specific term of years. The amount of the annuity payment retained by you, the grantor, is a function of: (i) the value of the property contributed to the GRAT, (ii) the GRAT’s term, and (iii) a fixed interest rate set by the IRS for the month of contribution. In most cases, the GRAT term we will suggest will be a relatively short 2 to 4 years.

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