How the Estate Tax Works: Who Actually Pays It, and How Little It Raises
Roughly 0.2% of estates file a federal estate tax return, and the tax raises under 1% of federal revenue. How the $15M exemption, GRATs, and step-up in basis actually work.
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How to Set Up a Trust Fund — and What It Really Costs
Setting up a trust is six steps, not one signature – and the step almost everyone skips quietly cancels the whole thing. What each step actually costs.
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What Does a Trustee Actually Do? Duties, Pay, Liability, and Why Families Hire Banks
A bank doesn’t die, divorce, or play favorites – which is exactly why families pay one to referee a trust. What a trustee actually owes, costs, and risks.
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Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trust: Control, Taxes, Creditors, and the Trade You Are Actually Making
A revocable trust becomes irrevocable the instant you die — no filing required. What that one switch actually changes about taxes, creditors, and control.
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Trust vs. Will: What Each One Does, What Each One Costs, and When You Need Both
Prince had no will; it took six years and $156.4M in dispute. Aretha Franklin had two; it took a jury four years. What a will and a trust actually each do — and why most estates need both.
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What Is a Trust Fund? What It Does, What It Costs, and Who Actually Needs One
Nobody counts trust funds — not the Fed, not the IRS. What a trust fund actually is, what a revocable trust does not do, what it costs to set up and to keep, and the cases where it costs more than the probate it avoids.
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The Heirless Fortune: What Happens to Money With No One to Inherit It
A childless billionaire is pouring his fortune into a 25-person Texas ghost town. What happens to money when there is no heir to take it — the trusts, the foundations, and the failure modes when the recipient isn’t family.
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The Job That Sees It: The Trusts and Estates Lawyer
The trusts and estates lawyer is often the only outsider in the room when a family decides who gets what. What the job involves — the ethics, the fees, the 2026 tax rules, and the cases that define it.
