Will with restrictive conditions - can they be enforced?

In My Humble Opinion
21

If I remember my Body Heat correctly the Rule against perituties constrains the nature of control possible after death.

22

You wouldn’t pay any estate tax on $20K anyway (assuming the USA). It doesn’t take effect for estates smaller than about $5 million.

23

Some states, mostly northeastern, do have an inheritance tax (paid by the inheritor), outside of the federal estate tax (paid by the state), but I don’t know whether it takes a certain amount to trigger it.

24

^Really? I’m pretty clueless about financial stuff, but my gf recently inherited ~$35,000 as did her siblings, from an aunt. She handled the money a certain way to avoid/minimize taxes. One of her brothers used his money for home improvements and had tax consequences. In the USA.

Also, there were groans from everyone involved because the aunt who died left the bulk of her ~2 million dollar estate to her older sister who will likely pass away in the next few years, then whoever gets the money will be taxed again.

25

If there is a trust established to oversee the management of the estate, to “babysit” the money, you can expect a good portion of the money will go to the lawyers.

~VOW

26

Pennsylvania, where I believe you live, has its own inheritance tax. It’s graduated depending on who the inheritor is, (spouses pay nothing for example), but it’s 15% for inheriting from an aunt.

27

From the AARP website, there are 17 states with estate or inheritance taxes.

  • Connecticut: Estate tax of 10.8 percent to 12 percent on estates above $7.1 million

  • District of Columbia: Estate tax of 11.2 percent to 16 percent on estates above $4 million

  • Hawaii: Estate tax of 10 percent to 20 percent on estates above $5.5 million

  • Illinois: Estate tax of 0.8 percent to 16 percent on estates above $4 million

  • Iowa: Inheritance tax of up to 15 percent

  • Kentucky: Inheritance tax of up to 16 percent

  • Maine: Estate tax of 8 percent to 12 percent on estates above $5.8 million

  • Maryland: Estate tax of 0.8 percent to 16 percent on estates above $5 million; inheritance tax of up to 10 percent

  • Massachusetts: 0.8 percent to 16 percent on estates above $1 million

  • Minnesota: 13 percent to 16 percent on estates above $3 million

  • Nebraska: Inheritance tax of up to 18 percent

  • New Jersey: Inheritance tax of up to 16 percent

  • New York: Estate tax of 3.06 percent to 16 percent for estates above $5.9 million

  • Oregon: Estate tax of 10 percent to 16 percent on estates above $1 million

  • Pennsylvania: Inheritance tax of up to 15 percent

  • Rhode Island: Estate tax of 0.8 percent to 16 percent on estates above $1.6 million

  • Vermont: Estate tax of 16 percent on estates above $5 million

  • Washington: Estate tax of 10 percent to 20 percent on estates above $2.2 million

In most states it doesn’t kick in until the estate is pretty sizeable, but Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania don’t seem to have a minimum.