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2013 Estate Planning Update (February 2013)

2013 ESTATE PLANNING UPDATE By Ethan R. Okura             Here is a 2013 update on important numbers used in Estate Planning and Medicaid Planning in Hawaii. How much money and property can a person have at death without paying estate taxes? As I mentioned in last...

New Law: Saved from the Fiscal Cliff? (January 2013)

NEW LAW: SAVED FROM THE FISCAL CLIFF? By Ethan R. Okura As you may know, President Obama cut short his vacation in Hawaii to return to Washington D.C. and deal with the problem of the fiscal cliff. For those of you who weren’t aware, the fiscal cliff refers...

HAWAII ESTATE AND GENERATION SKIPPING TRANSFER TAXES (July 2012)

HAWAII ESTATE AND GENERATION SKIPPING TRANSFER TAXES On July 5, 2012, Governor Abercrombie finally signed into law the Estate and Generation-Skipping Tax Reform Act, which is Act 220. Parts of this law were badly needed to clean up the poorly written Hawaii Estate Tax...

2012 Estate Planning Update (January 2012)

Here is a 2012 update on important numbers used in Estate Planning and Medicaid Planning in Hawaii. How much money and property can a person have at death without paying estate taxes? Under a temporary federal law, $5,000,000 is tax free this year. From January 1,...

Hawaii State Death Tax Calculation Chart (April 2011)

Hawaii State Death Tax Calculation Chart   Step 1: Determine Taxable Estate (from federal form 706, Part 2, Line 3) (However, use $3.5M as exemption)* Step 2: Determine Adjusted Taxable Estate (Subtract $60,000 from Taxable Estate in Step 1) Step 3: Find Adjusted...

Take Advantage of the New Gift Tax Law (February 2011)

The new tax law gives us a wonderful opportunity to protect assets from nursing home costs and also from taxes.  It makes temporary changes to the federal tax laws.  It allows you to give away during your lifetime up to $5 million of assets without any gift...