It's that time of year again when both your children and trees put on their familiar red, yellow, and orange coats. Of course with Fall comes school. And with school comes expenses. And perhaps you might be looking for some way to provide better education for your children or other family members while also gaining some benefit from making those educational distributions.

Now would be an excellent time to start a trust for those educational costs all the while being able to pass on those benefits and take advantage of the lifetime gift tax exemptions at the same time. Currently a U.S. citizen may gift away just over $5 million without having to pay federal estate or gift tax. However, after the end of this year that amount is going to drop significantly to just $1 million per person or $2 million per couple. And the tax rate on anything over that amount will balloon to 55%. Yikes!

So you see there is little time to waste. If you haven't already begun, now would be the time to get things in motion, because this year when the snow begins to fall the taxes will be begin to rise.

Please consult with a professional estate litigation Attorney in the southern Los Angeles area for all of your estate litigation needs.

*This blog entry was not written by an Attorney and should not be constituted as professional legal advice.