KDV Twin Cities Growth Leads to Office Move

Minneapolis, Minnesota - October 23, 2009; Kern, DeWenter, Viere, Ltd. (KDV), a regional CPA and business advisory firm will combine its three Twin Cities offices in Bloomington, Minnesota effective November 2, 2009.  The move was made to accommodate KDV's organic growth and its recent expansion through mergers.  Earlier this year KDV completed mergers of a CPA firm specializing in accounting and consulting services for privately held industries and health care services and an outsourced information technology consulting firm.  The Twin Cities office consolidation does not affect KDV's existing St. Cloud location or operations. 

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GRATs: The long and short of it

The grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) can be a powerful estate planning tool. But the appropriate length of a GRAT’s term is at times a source of confusion among people planning their estates and a subject of debate among experts. There are important differences between short-term and long-term GRATs; to decide which is best, a person needs to factor in his or her age, health, and risk tolerance, along with the IRS’ Section 7520 rate of return, the nature and projected performance of the assets being contributed, and the availability of valuation discounts (which this article discusses in a sidebar).
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For a healthy estate plan, know the HIPAA privacy rules

Health issues play an important role in a variety of estate planning situations. Typically, many estate planning documents and document provisions are triggered by a physician’s certification that a person lacks the capacity to make decisions. But this requirement may be at odds with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). HIPAA privacy rules prohibit physicians, hospitals and other health care providers from discussing a patient’s condition or releasing his or her medical records to third parties without the patient’s written consent. To ensure timely acquisition of the necessary information, it’s important to ensure that estate plan documents are written with HIPAA requirements in mind.
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You, your noncitizen spouse and your estate plan — Use a QDOT to preserve marital deduction benefits

For married couples, the unlimited marital deduction is a powerful estate planning tool that allows an unlimited amount of assets to pass (through lifetime gifts or bequests at death) to a spouse free of gift and estate taxes — if the spouse is a U.S. citizen. If not, however, one can have assets transferred estate-tax free at death to a qualified domestic trust (QDOT), with the noncitizen spouse receiving the trust income during his or her lifetime. But there are pros and cons to be considered, along with international treaties that address estate taxes.
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Estate Planning Pitfall — You haven’t named backup beneficiaries for your life insurance policies

A life insurance policy’s beneficiary designation is extremely important but easily overlooked. Many people make the mistake of naming their estate as beneficiary, which can result in needless expense and delay. As this short article explains, the solution is to designate at least two backup (or contingent) beneficiaries.
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