Drafting Crummey Withdrawal Rights in InterActive Legal
Estate planners often worry about minimizing or avoiding estate taxation at death, but gift taxation must be considered when making transfers during lifetime. Smaller gifts can avoid gift taxation due to the gift tax annual exclusion, which allows taxpayers to transfer relatively small amounts of property without any gift tax impact at all. However, if a gift is made to a trust, instead of outright, the gift tax result may differ. In most cases, gifts in trust are intended to qualify for the gift tax annual exclusion by giving the trust beneficiary a right of withdrawal over trust contributions - often referred to as a Crummey power, named after the court decision that first allowed this strategy.
