frontiers of finance

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

from SLATE's "Today's Papers" column: >The [Wall Street Journal] and the
[Washington Post] report that the IRS is planning to shut down a truly
macabre tax break known as a "ghoul trust." The gimmick? A lawyer for a
rich person finds a young person who is expected to die within a few years
and creates a trust in the name of the doomed person which then is used as
a vehicle to give assets to others after the predicted death. Because of
the actuarial rules used to calculate estate and gift taxes, a young
"donor" means big tax savings. The WP says that lawyers and financial
planners market these packages to customers complete with the name of a
suitably seriously ill individual and access to his/her medical records. <


Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~jdevine