Four Lessons Learned from Prince’s Estate (So Far)
Several of the events surrounding the initial administration of Prince’s estate provide lessons applicable to all estate plans, not just celebrity estate plans.
- If You Don’t Have an Estate Plan, the State Will Write One For You. Prince died without a Will. Because he was not married at the time of his death and he had no surviving parents, children or grandchildren, his sister, and his five half-brothers and half-sisters each will inherit one-sixth of his estate. Two other half-siblings died before Prince, apparently leaving no children of their own; otherwise, they would be entitled to part of the estate as well.
Continue reading “Four Lessons Learned from Prince’s Estate (So Far)”
Higher Learning: A Potentially Expensive Lesson About 529 Plans
A “529 qualified tuition plan” is an education savings plan designed to encourage and help families set aside funds for future college costs. It’s named after Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, which created this type of plan in 1996.
Americans have an estimated $248 billion currently invested in 529 plans. And it’s easy to understand why. Generally speaking, 529 plans offer an impressive array of income tax and estate tax breaks, plus other benefits.
- Earnings on funds within the plan grow federal and California tax-free as long as the money is taken out to pay for qualified education-related expenses of the designated beneficiary, such as tuition, fees, books, computers, and room and board. Continue reading “Higher Learning: A Potentially Expensive Lesson About 529 Plans”
The Art of Self Defense
Corporate compliance programs come in all shapes and sizes and apply whether your company is privately owned or publicly traded. These internal controls take the form of accounting and audit procedures, import-export/regulatory policies, employment guidelines, ethics/anti-corruption initiatives and so on. The intent of any compliance program is to ensure that employees know what is expected of them and that their behavior complies with and is consistent with the “rules of the road” for your business or industry. Continue reading “The Art of Self Defense”
Shielded but Not Covered – Privacy Demands Better Protection
Yesterday, the Article 29 Working Party took action which some found surprising and others predicted. It found the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield did not contain adequate protections and needs further improvement. The Working Party’s statement can be found here.
While acknowledging the Privacy Shield contains “significant improvements” over the previous Safe Harbor, the Working Party also stated its objective is to “make sure that an essentially equivalent level of protection is maintained when personal data is processed subject to the provisions of the Privacy Shield.” Continue reading “Shielded but Not Covered – Privacy Demands Better Protection”
No Password? See You In Court?
Many headlines have been generated over recent attempts to recover highly desired data from a locked smart device after the death of the device’s owner. While the legal battle between Apple and the FBI over information stored by one of the San Bernardino shooting suspects in an iPhone pitted law enforcement against the technology community, it should also serve as a high profile reminder of the need to address digital passwords as part of an estate plan. Continue reading “No Password? See You In Court?”
TFTEA – Export Focus
In earlier editions of our Alert, we first summarized the new law (see here), then addressed the intellectual property rights changes it contained (see here), and most recently covered the organizational structure (see here). Now, we turn to the export focused provisions in the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (“TFTEA”). Mainly those export provisions have to do with information collection for targeting. However, new initiatives for promoting U.S. exports are let out in detail in TFTEA. Continue reading “TFTEA – Export Focus”
TFTEA – CBP Organizational Structure
The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act presents many new guidelines for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The labyrinth of the Act is laborious to dissect and is the reason we have created this series of Alerts. This latest edition digs in to the inner workings of CBP’s organizational structure, duties, and implementation expectations. Anyone who works in international trade, whether an importer or exporter of goods or a service provider, will find this piece exceptionally interesting. Continue reading “TFTEA – CBP Organizational Structure”
Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 and Intellectual Property Rights
This article was co-authored with Kevin M. Rosenbaum of MS&K.
On February 24, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, PL 114-125 (TFTEA), which includes an assortment of trade facilitation and trade enforcement provisions, including a number of provisions focused on intellectual property rights (IPR). Section III of the new law provides a number of enhancements to U.S. enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) at the border. In addition, included among a variety of new trade enforcement provisions in Section VI, the new law provides additional resources to assist the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) improve IPR protection and enforcement in foreign markets. Continue reading “Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 and Intellectual Property Rights”
New Customs Bill Is Now Law
Originally published in the Journal of Commerce in March 2016
On February 24, 2016, President Obama signed into law H.R. 644. Entitled the “Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015,” it contains a good many technical revisions to existing Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) processes, procedures, laws and regulations. Much more is included, so there are many topics of widespread interest to the broader trade community, import and export. Continue reading “New Customs Bill Is Now Law”
Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations Concluded – Now What?
Originally published by the Journal of Commerce in October 2015
With the news the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have been successfully concluded, the obvious question is what is next? The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is in chaos. As we go to press, the presumptive new Speaker has withdrawn, the caucus is coming apart, the Democrats are smiling, but the country is suffering. Renewal of the ExIm Bank is subject to a parliamentary ploy where the one thing Congress is supposed to do finally happened – a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats reached across the aisle seeking to govern the country. Whether their parliamentary move does the trick remains to be seen. Will the House pass ExIm renewal? Continue reading “Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations Concluded – Now What?”
MSK Blog 