There is a growing trend in the United States to choose green “death care” options. My clients bring this up more frequently these days. They are choosing to put this in their estate planning documents as their plan of choice. The term “Green Burial” means that the body is buried, but there is no embalming of the body, no liners or vaults, using biodegradable containers, whether caskets, shrouds, or nothing at all. The Green Burial Council (GBC), a non-profit organization that encourages environmentally sound burials, states that “Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that furthers ecological aims such as the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of a habitat.”
The cases start all over the country and leave a trail of misery and disappointment:
At the end of 2025, unless action is taken by Congress before that date, the federal estate tax exclusion amount is going to “sunset”. That means that it may nosedive to half of the current amount of $13,160,000. Most estate planning professionals predict that the exclusion will drop to around $7 million. That means that everyone who has been relying on the $13 million exclusion amount may suddenly find themselves with estate tax liability. The people that would be affected are those of single individuals with assets over $7 million or married couples with assets more than $14 million but less than $25 million.
Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (also known as CRATs) have been blessed by IRS since 1970. So why is the IRS now proposing to make CRATs reportable with your individual tax return with hefty penalties for not reporting? The short answer is due to the abuse of this income tax and estate tax planning tool. The long answer is a bit more complicated.
If you recall, President Biden announced in September that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) would be issuing a mandate requiring all employers with 100 or more employees to have a mandatory vaccination policy to minimize the spread of COVID-19 transmission in the workplace and protect unvaccinated employees. OSHA released the emergency temporary standard (called an ETS) on November 4th. All covered employers are required to be compliant with the ETS by January 4, 2022. While OSHA has issued prior guidance, these new requirements are a more aggressive step towards eliminating Covid-19 and its related risks in the workplace.
Establishing an estate plan is a crucial step toward peace of mind. An estate plan typically includes the following documents: a Will, a Financial Power of Attorney, a Health Care Power of Attorney, and in many cases, a Revocable Living Trust. These documents help control your assets if you become disabled or pass away.
New federal guidance issued August 13, 2021 reinforces that all employers should implement multi-layered interventions to protect unvaccinated and otherwise at-risk workers and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The District of Columbia and all major surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia are considered to be areas of substantial or high transmission (as of September 15, 2021). The federal Occupational Safety and Health Act or its state counterpart covers most private sector employers in the United States. While there is no simple one-size-fits-all approach, the OSHA guidance is a helpful checklist for businesses to determine their individual approaches.
The Health Care Power of Attorney and the Advance Medical Directive are critically important estate planning documents. The Advance Medical Directive (often called a “Living Will”) allows you to make your wishes known about whether to withhold life support in certain contexts. The Health Care Power of Attorney allows you to name someone (usually called an “agent” or an “attorney-in-fact”) to make healthcare decisions for you, in the event you are incapable of doing so yourself.
As the pandemic wears on and effective vaccines roll out to many adults, employers and employees are hoping to stop wearing masks in the workplace. To reduce labor risks, we advise employers to keep a workplace mask policy in place, remind all employees that the policy remains in effect, and directly address employees who do not cooperate.
Employers, schools, and real estate developers should take note of a new Executive Order issued on Inauguration Day which gives an expansive reading to last summer’s Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. In Bostock, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch writing for a 6:3 majority held that Title VII’s prohibition on employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” covers discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.
