Estate Planning Tools of the Trade

This Action Assignment consists of six objective questions that will help you and your manager or trainer measure your understanding of estate tax basics. When completed, be prepared to review this with your General Agent/Trainer.

1. The term "probate property" refers to:
   1. Property for which ownership is unclear, and for which the courts must determine ownership.
   2. Property for which ownership is transferred directly from a financial institution to a named beneficiary at the owner's death, bypassing the decedent's will.
   3. Property that has passed through the terms of a decedent's will or, in the absence of a will, through the state's intestacy laws.
   4. Property that has no owner and is turned over to the state.

2. A and B own property that is owned under joint tenancy with right of survivorship. If A dies, his interest in the property:
   1. Passes fully to B, regardless of any contrary provision in a will or any other expressed intention with regard to the property.
   2. Passes fully to B, only if A's will expresses such intent.
   3. Passes to any party named in A's will or, if there is no will, to A's heirs under the terms of the state's intestacy laws.

3. The marital deduction does not eliminate the estate tax liability for the first spouse to die; it merely defers taxation until the second spouse's death.
   1. True
   2. False

4. A will permits an individual to achieve all the following estate planning objectives, EXCEPT:
   1. Control disposition of their property at death.
   2. Designate a guardian for their minor children or other legally incompetent dependents.
   3. Disinherit someone who would otherwise take property under the intestacy laws.
   4. Pass property to a beneficiary without it being recognized for estate tax valuation purposes.

5. All the following statements regarding trusts are correct, EXCEPT:
   1. An inter vivos trust may be either revocable or irrevocable.
   2. Once enacted at the grantor's death, a testamentary trust is irrevocable.
   3. A drawback of a revocable living trust is that at the grantor's death trust property becomes subject to probate.
   4. A credit trust is a common means of taking advantage of the grantor's exclusion equivalent amount at the grantor's death, while also making use of the marital deduction.

6. To avoid recapture into the insured's estate, a life insurance policy that is transferred from the insured to an irrevocable life insurance trust must be transferred at least:
   1. Thirty days before the insured's death.
   2. One year before the insured's death.
   3. Three years before the insured's death.
   4. Five years before the insured's death.

Please print this Action Assignment using the "Printer Friendly" button at the top of this page. Once it is complete, sign it and submit it to your General Agent for his or her signature. Give one signed copy to the General Agent and fax/send another copy to Field Development Operations at the corporate headquarters — (513) 794-4515.