- Hello everyone. And welcome to Sandy Spring Bank's, Real Life Matters Professional Discussion series. My name's Phil Fish. I'm an estate planning specialist and certified financial planner with Sandy Spring Trust. And I've been with the bank for over 20 years. And I'm the host as I interview local professionals in the areas of law, tax, finance, and healthcare. I'm very honored today for David to join us. David DeJong is an attorney with Stein Sperling. He's gonna talk with us today about tax developments affecting seniors. David, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule today. Could you give us, start it out by giving the audience a little background on yourself and your position with Stein Sperling, a little bit about Stein Sperling, it's a really strong local law firm. And you and I have known each other over 20 years. So it's a pleasure to spend the next 40 minutes or so chatting with you.
- Well, it's a pleasure to be here. I've been with Stein Sperling over 40 years. The firm was founded in 1978. I was the fourth person aboard in 1980. We now have over 50 lawyers. We're one of the larger firms in Montgomery County. We are a general practice law firm. My focus is in tax, estate planning and business transactions. I'm very pleased that our firm enjoys the tax group with us news and world report, a tier one national rating. We're one of 36, 37 firms in the United States. Most larger than us to enjoy that tier one rating. And we're also rated in and trust as well.
- Yeah, I've known the firm a long time. I've been with the bank for 20 years but I knew you actually before when I was at another bank. And you have an incredibly deep, highly skilled group of lawyers that I know many of them, and it's a pleasure interacting with them over the years. So thank you again for taking time. So it's an interesting topic today. There was a lot of tax law changes in the past couple of years. I'm going to focus a little bit on seniors today because a lot of the tax law changes certainly affected them. And you shared with me a list of around, 10 or so items that we're gonna run through. At the end of today's program, we will be sharing my contact information with David's and if you need help, certainly reach out to either one of us. And we're trying... If we can't help directly point you in the right direction because it's complicated and it's confusing. So we're gonna start with the Secure Act which I think was passed in 2019. And that created quite a lot of changes that did affect seniors. And the first item you listed for me was a 10 year withdrawal rule following death. And I think that relates to the retirement plans if I remember correctly.
- Yes, and the legislation had some provisions that were good and some that were not so good for seniors. That was one that was not so good. And generally, when you inherit a retirement plan interest, whether the decedent had started withdrawals at age 70 and a half now age 72 or not, there is still a 10 year period in most cases where you must get every dollar out of the retirement plan. This was not the case until 2020. And if someone inherited a retirement plan and had a young age they could spread it out over a number of years. Now there are a couple exceptions but you have a 10 year period to take it out. And the law was quite unclear as to whether you had to take payments out on an annual basis or whether you could wait until the end of the 10 years if that made more sense or something in between. And it now appears, and I'm gonna use the word appears because there has been a lot of controversy and back and forth and even some misinformation out of the IRS, but it appears as if you have the choice of when you want to take it out but it must all be out by 10 years from the December 31, which follows the applicable death. So in some cases, depending on the date of death you may have as much as 11 years now, Phil there are two major exceptions to that and some others. The rules on spouses are unchanged. A spouse, has the option of rolling over into her or his own IRA. And normally this is what you're going to want to do. There will be some cases where it will make more sense for the surviving spouse to hold it in a decedent account. But in most cases, a spouse will still want to a rollover. And also if it is inherited by a minor child the ten-year period does not start until the age of majority. This is apparently majority under state law and that has raised some interesting questions that haven't been answered yet in most fates majority is age 18. I believe there's a few states where it's 21 and even a couple where if you are a full-time student it can go beyond age 21. So that's the problem with a tax laws. All of the ramifications are not totally thought out.
- And I think a lot of now with the movement away from pension plans and the movement towards 401k plans, a lot of clients have significant assets in these 401ks and IRAs, and they're not paying taxes as they grow. And when they retired, when they reached a certain age they'll have withdrawals. But many of you are gonna be passing on these retirement assets to family and or to, people that they care about and the tax ramifications are going to be significant. And the choices the beneficiaries receive are going to be very important because if an individual isn't aware of the tax law options and just ask for a check in year one, they could get absolutely destroyed in taxes with a very large tax bill if they do a full withdrawal and don't take advantage of the 10 year plan. And we see that happens occasionally with people who just, the family member dies they get a call from Vanguard or someone was saying you're the beneficiary, what you wanna do. And they heard the forms. And one of the forms is we can send you a check and okay? And again, if they're not getting good counsel or advice of their options then that withdrawal could all be in one calendar year. Plus in our line of work I worked cross the Sandy stream bank trust division. If we're dealing with a trust where we're trying to place these assets into a trust for an individual, maybe with special needs or with health issues, this is really complicated things. Now, though, there are some exceptions for individuals with special needs, I believe.
- Correct.
- But it's just... These IRAs and 401ks, the individual has not paid taxes on these traditional ones. And you can have a very large income tax problem that does not go away when the client passes away. A lot of clients get confused that these income tax obligations, are gonna be passed down to family members in many cases.
- Yeah, retirement plans do not have a step up in basis at the time of death. The same way that stock investment outside of a retirement plan do. The same way real estate has. And of course there are some potential changes here but we enjoy a step up in basis with all built in gain forgiven under current law. You don't have that in the case of a retirement plan. You raised several other good points as well. And yes, the trend has been to 401k plans. When I was a young lawyer in practice, a number of businesses had defined benefit plans.
- Yes.
- Plans where you were guaranteed a certain percent of your average compensation at retirement. That was my parents' type of retirement plan. The cost of funding was more than some businesses could afford. And some companies some very large ones had a lot of trouble because of their pension obligation. Now we rarely see a defined benefit plan one in which the employer and the employee share the opportunity to put money aside for retirement is most common. That's a 401 K plan for most, for a certain nonprofit and public workers. It's a four, a three B plan. Very, very similar.
- Yeah, and so I think the general rule as we move on is for retirement planning and estate planning. If a client has significant retirement plans they really should talk to an estate and tax advisor to talk about the options, because the way you structure your plans and the advice given to the beneficiaries is gonna be very important as far as their options and their tax ramifications. So we need to--
- Number of choices Phil in the retirement plan arena has just really expanded over the years. It's become a very complex area of the tax law. And then you get to your choices in regard to distributions. And that's not easy either. Now we're only in our second year of dealing with the 10 year withdrawal period following death. And an early observation is that for most, it makes sense the let the money grow on a pre-tax basis for that whole 10 year period and take it out. But for some individuals, they may be better off spreading it over a number of years but not necessarily the full 10 years. It's very tied to your marginal tax bracket.
- And for some clients year to year, they might have different tax situations. So it may be not a lineal. It may be one year. They have a slower tax year, one year it's a little rougher. So that tax guidance is gonna be important. You mentioned that the rule to 72 changed, we used to have the year after somebody reached 70 and a half which I never understood. That one was always confusing. You had to figure out when do I turn 70 and a half? And that the year after that, so now it says yes, 72. I believe that when you turn 72, you have to stop pulling money out of these retirement plans.
- I can't tell you Phil how many times I've had to work with clients, what is a 70 and a half.
- It's like, why not... It's one of those wonderful tax rules where you just scratch your head. You go, okay, it's hard enough as it is. Why are we making this harder to stick out? My birthday is May and so, and you've got to count the months spend anyways. So, but they did change that to 72.
- Where we still have to deal with age 59 and a half in the tax law.
- Of course
- Because that's the age that you have to be in order to have no restrictions on withdrawal at least upon termination of employment, and none at all in the case of a traditional IRA. There are some exceptions where you can take earlier and you can always take earlier in the form of an annuity but the upper end where you had to stop taking with few exceptions was a 70 and a half for many years, as long as I've been in practice. And effective 2020, it changed to age 72 for individuals who had not hit 70 and a half by December 31st, 2019. So individuals got either one or two extra years before they had to begin their withdrawals dependent on their birth day. What's interesting now is there is a proposal to extend it further to age 75 and this is great for individuals who are not in need of funds. Now, the criticism of that is, in the criticism of expanding retirement plan benefits in general is that most retirement plan benefits are held by upper income or upper middle income people. And it's going to be those who make more money who have investments outside of their retirement plan that are going to benefit the most. If it goes from age 72 to 75. So we don't know whether that will happen, but age 72 as I said, gives an extra year or two. Now, if you continue to work, when you've hit age 72, you do not need to take from your employer plan. You do, if you have an IRA, but from your employer plan you do not need to take until the year in which you terminate employment. So someone who is working deep into their seventies will have some added years for the money to grow in a tax deferred manner and we'll have more money to take out during their remaining lifetime and that of their spouse.
- Yeah, I've had a couple of clients who are enjoy the work, there in the 70s, and a they're making a nice income, but b they say, well, if I stop working, then I'm gonna have to pull money out of my retirement plan and get taxed pretty heavily on it. So for some clients, it creates an encouragement to keep working. And I believe now if you're like a primary owner of the business, it's a little different it's for, regular employees that fit into--
- Yes, I'm glad you brought that up, Phil, that if you are more than a 5% owner, you are not able delay beyond a 72, but there is a way to get around it. In the case of many businesses, you cut your ownership interest, and you must do so by December 31 of the year before you hit age 72.
- Oh, okay. And I have had clients do that as well.
- All right, well the wonderful thing with the tax laws is there are many different paths to get from a to b. And that's where your team come into play is helping guide and navigate individuals just like our team helps clients navigate on the investment side and the trust side, you're helping clients on the tax side, saying you're here you're trying to get to point b. Here are your choices. Here are your options. Everything's legal within the law. But if we take this little side road, we might be able to save quite a bit of money in taxes. Or if we go down this other side road, here are the benefits and cons, and everything's gonna have pluses and minuses but people like you kind of know, I always describe professionals as navigators. You kind of know the lay of the land and you can kind of point clients in the right direction.
- That's true, but what is very difficult and I think we're gonna go there a little later is predicting the future particularly where we have a great divide like we do today. Yes, one party is tentatively in control of Congress in the White House, but there's enough vacillation that there can be no assurance that the proposals of the president will be enacted. And the fact that the tax law has become very much political and public policy goes into the legislation. It makes it very hard to predict what's coming. So we attempt to plan for alternatives in the future while planning for today as well.
- Well, that's a good leading 'cause the next thing you wanted to talk about is the possible changes and how there's, a lot of, fear out in the community that under the new administration we're gonna see much higher taxes for lots of people whether it's business owners or individuals, changes to capital gains tax rates, changes to the estate tax rates, which, you and I would remember the days of like the $600,000 threshold for the federal estate tax, which wasn't that long ago. And now it's--
- Oh, I go back further than you do.
- yes you do.
- When I came out of law school, the exemption was $60,000.
- Oh, my goodness
- And now it is 11.7 million. And I don't think cost of living drive up that dramatically. So even a married couple with over $120,000 of equity was subject in their home was potentially subject to estate tax. And now, depending on the year nationally, there's only 15 to 1700 deaths each year, where there is a tax liability shown on an estate tax return. But I sure have a number of clients that we have to do planning for to try to keep them out of that group.
- Well, the thing people have to realize is that the estate tax is a, can change but b is on the fair market value of everything you own. So a lot of individuals with businesses or with land or with property commercial property that is just escalating. When they pass away appraisals are done, at whether the client wants to sell the item or not what could they sell it for becomes part of the tax equation. And so in this in the greater Washington region with real estate prices and many businesses doing well, a lot of clients do have a tax issue. And I know a lot of lawyers and tax specialists like you are very busy right now because there's kind of the perfect scenario where we have a current high exemption amount. So the current thresholds are very high. We have a very low interest rate period so that the whole concept of some clients have the ability to gift assets out of their name to maybe future generations using the tax pool and really do some very powerful tax planning to protect themselves from potential not only changes in the estate tax laws but also the assets are gonna continue to grow in value over the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years. So I know a lot of professionals like you are really working with higher net worth clients to say, listen you have this business or these pieces of real estate or these investment holdings. If we transfer them out of your name and do it in the right way, we can really leverage the opportunity that we have, and definitely minimize the potential taxes that you may face in the future. And again, there's nothing worse than you and I meeting with a client whose family is having to write a very large check to the federal or state government. And you and I both know that with better planning that check could have either been a lot less or even zero if they did adjust, if the client had passed away if the client had done planning in advance and done some smart strategies, they could have transferred a lot more wealth to family or charities or people that you care about as opposed to the taxes. So--
- Yeah, there's some people that have a hard time in dealing with the transitions that will occur in their life as the result of retirement and eventually death. And unfortunately we see cases where significant dollars could have been saved for the next generation or two through a planning. And you've raised a particularly good point, Phil that this is an excellent time for gifting for several reasons. Number one, for the wealthiest of families we're dealing now with an $11.7 million exemption that is schedule if no action is taken to be cut in half in 2026. And if substantial gifts are made that are larger than the ultimate 50% exemption, there will be no repercussions at the time of death, because you will be able to use the larger exemption for gifts. And as you noted, of course you're getting appreciation out of the estate. And we're seeing real property in many areas going up in the last few months and we could be hitting a cycle of rising prices in real estate. We're already seeing it in the stock market. So that could be a good time to give some creative gift can make sense with the low interest rates that we have today. And there's also a possible change that has been talked about for several years, and it is part of the Biden proposal, and it will have a chilling effect on family businesses. And that is not being permitted to discount gifts in limited liability entities. Right now, if you have a family, a limited liability company or family partnership, and you make gifts to next generation, you are valuing hits the small percentages that are given and you take a discount for lack of marketability and one for a lack of control. And even the IRS generally accepts 20 to 30% discount. Some practitioners go for a lot more, especially with very small percentages given. But if this proposal were to take effect, the valuation of a partial interest in a limited liability entity, would be a pro ravish share of the pie. It's not clear if Congress may limit this application to only family entities that hold real estate or securities for investment, or whether it will apply to active businesses as well. So many good reasons now for gifting within the family.
- And what we stress to clients is at Sandy Springs Trust we have lawyers on staff but they're not allowed to represent our clients. And so we work closely with estate planning professionals like you and tax advisors. And so the early client... This is not a fun thing to work on it. It's very complicated. It's detailed. It takes time if it's done properly but the benefits that the family can see, I kind of loved the phrase legally disinheriting the IRS and the state that you live in. So it's, they are a potential beneficiary of a client's estate that kind of sitting on the walls smiling saying, if you die, you don't have a good plan. There's a good chance we're gonna get a nice big chunk of your estate as a tax. But if they do some proper planning and again time becomes very important because the older the client is we'll look closer to the date of death. There is the less options you have available but if they can kind of think forward, there are so many amazing strategies available. All of them legal, all of them allowed under the law, but they can transfer a client's hardened wealth to the people that they choose. It might be family charities, friends, loved ones in a way that is efficient and can protect, their hard work. There's nothing worse than seeing a business on the work. The whole life build something really amazing and then die or become sick. And obviously when a client becomes sick they're no able to do the planning. And we see that value. The business may have to be sold to cover the tax bill which is a horrible ending. And then the sale may not represent the value 'cause it has to be rushed. And so it's about protecting the client's assets and their family and individuals like you started spilling on other firms provide that guidance to families to say here are the laws. You may not like them, but they're here but here's some gaps or openings or opportunities where with the right plan, we can help transfer your wealth to who you want minimizing any potential taxes and also protect against changes in future tax law because the laws can change quickly. They moved upwards very quickly. That surprised a lot of us the way they went up. Many of us were like, wow, look at this big number, but they can also come down just as quickly. So--
- There was one addition to the tax law though, 10 years ago that techs the person who did not do the planning. Now this is not me encouraging individuals particularly those who have accumulated significant assets. I'm not encouraging you not to plan but in 2011 if I have my ear correct we had a new concept come into the federal the state tax law, that of portability meaning at the time of the death of the first spouse, the unused exemption gets tacked on to the exemption of the surviving spouse. Prior to 2011, that did not exist. And it means that the individual who has some wealth and failed to create a potential trust to avoid overloading the estate may still be able to get away with little or no estate tax by tacking on the exemption of the first spouse to die. Now, very important to know is even if you're not otherwise required to file an estate tax return to have the added exemption available for the second death you must timely file an estate tax return at the time of the first death. Maryland has portability as well. Sewing, married couple under today's law as a combined federal exemption of 23.4 million scheduled to be halved in 2026. And the Maryland couple, has a combined $10 million exemption.
- Yeah, I know a lot of clients that unfortunately upon the death of the first spouse, the surviving spouse doesn't get counsel or advice and they may not take the action that is necessary because they have to do certain work with their attorney and their tax advisor to file the proper forms. And so they can't go back five years later and say, oh, I forgot to do it. There is a window, I think, where you have to act. And if you don't act in that window you will lose that opportunity if I'm correct. So.
- That's right, but what's becoming of interest in pending legislation, Phil as it appears that we're not going to get a lower estate tax exemption prior to 2026.
- Okay.
- Here's as if the emphasis of Congress is going to be in the income tax area. Now some of the changes that are proposed are only going to affect the people with the highest income. The president's proposal would not affect individuals and couples who have income below mid six figures. The individuals in the highest bracket would go up from 37 to 39.6%. And the interestingly we've had this back and forth going back all the way to the Clinton administration where the rates got increased to 39.6. George W. Bush comes in, it goes back to 37. Obama comes in, it goes back to 39, 6. Trump comes in, it goes back to 37 and we could be back to 39.6 again. On the capital gain side, the president's proposal would tax capital gains at ordinary rates, but only for individuals who have a million dollars of income, but that apparently includes the capital gain itself. So if you sell off an asset at a large profit and you already have pretty fair income that could hit you. But where I was going, Phil was with this idea that many people think is half baked and they had is to impose a capital gains tax on assets that are transferred. Even though there is no sale of the assets. This is very similar to the Canadian system which at death taxes unrealized gain the proposal of the president who would leave the estate tax rates alone in the exemption alone, at least until 2026 would call for at the time of death after a million dollar exemption. If you have appreciation in your assets in excess that you're gonna pay a toll charge. That's my terminology. You're gonna pay a capital gains tax at the time of death to pass it to the next generation and be any gifting of assets with more than a hundred thousand of built in gain would be subject to tax at that point on that appreciation to date. That's a pretty scary.
- No. Especially for people with businesses or with real estate land, highly appreciated assets that, the step-up in basis rule is a huge tax benefit for so many individuals. The ability to transfer, a house or a beach house, a piece of real estate, commercial property, valuables, collectibles. That would be a... 'Cause in way back in the seventies, I think they had kind of a carry over where the cost basis was passed on which was a complete nightmare trying to track it. So this is--
- Yeah, so it was part of the 1976 act. And it was such a bad idea.
- It was repealed retroactively, this is the variation on.
- Yeah, but the problem is a lot of clients don't know that cost basis. So if they had to assume zero then you're really gonna get hit hard. So, that's gonna, really create a of challenge to a lot of individuals. So we've covered some great material. I do wanna wrap up with the last issue there. The recurring problems, because there's two that you referenced. The failure to take minimum distributions which I know has a very heavy penalty to it. And then scams, conservation, easements, demolition, donations, things like that. So as we wrap up today and thank you, David, for your time, I'd like to cover those two areas 'cause I think they're both very important. So let's start with failure to take minimum distributions. Are you talking about retirement accounts?
- Yes, I have two situations now that have materialized been brought to my attention in recent days where individuals who are up in years have not taken minimum distributions in each case for between 10 and 15 years. And obviously we will try to get the 50% annual penalty abated. They will be required to file for each year of form 5329 and compute the penalty. And it is a concern. And I think that there are some institutions, I'm sure this is not the case with Sandy Spring that failed to pick up on this and alert their clients as to the requirement of a minimum distribution. It certainly is a lot safer to set up a schedule if you're taking it on an annual basis to say get a check each December one, for example.
- Well, and I think that's where in our trust department I know we have our operations department keeps a very close eye on that and our trust offices and portfolio managers are working with the client. And if the client's health declines, we're working with the client's decision-makers named in that document. So we haven't run across that issue, but as a fiduciary we're legally responsible for keeping an eye out on our client's affairs and taking good care of them. But one of the issues we do see is with declining health, just filing tax returns or doing tax strategies or doing, getting exposed to the scams, which you talk about. One of the nice things at Sandy Spring Trust that we do is we have an ad lock. We offer online viewability a client can log on and see their account but there's no movement of funds allowed. We don't issue checkbooks to our clients investment accounts or a debit card linked or linked to the checking account. We're a little old school. The client has to speak to that portfolio manager or trust officer to transfer funds. And we provide that airlock for a very specific reason is to create a safety net so that if the client is struggling with a mental capacity and has given that password to somebody it doesn't hurt them. If somebody is trying to access their account, we can catch it. If the client's got exposed to a scam where they wanna buy a yacht in Greece for $4 million and they're 94 years old and they've never owned a boat in their whole life, it's we can catch those things. Because somebody can't get access to the accounts or the assets without going through somebody who's familiar with the client and knows the client situation. But I know scams and attacks against seniors when the health is struggling is a huge problem that is just really out of control at the moment.
- The two I'm seeing on the tax side in the last couple of years, and they do tend to approach older people. And one of them is conservation easements. Which is potentially a legitimate deduction if you take a portion of your property that potentially could be built on and you agree not to build on it, the declining value can potentially give rise to a charitable deduction, but this has just opened the way for horrible abuse and syndications. And I've had to come in after the fact and help some very good people who got involved in that. And the other one I'm seeing is for people who want to build a home. Let's say their retirement home and they buy a lot with an old tear me down on it. And they contract with one of several companies out there that are saying, you get a deduction for the value of a home, often an inflated amount. And the reality is if you don't buy it with the intention of living in that house you're purchasing it for just the land. And they're telling people that you can get a significant charitable deduction when you it to the fire department, which we'll burn it down. And that's training for firefighters. And I've had to deal with people who've been caught up in that scam. Unfortunately, when things are complicated it makes it easier for people to sell bad products and bad services and taxes no exception.
- And again, what we stress to individuals never give out specific information social security numbers, or account information. Be very careful when you're interacting with individuals. If it sounds too good to be true there's a really good chance it is. And if somebody's pushing you to sign something quickly, if they say this deal ends this Friday you've got to sign now, just step back ask them to give you the information in writing don't sign anything and then turn to somebody that you trust. It might be a friend, a family member, a neighbor a bank officer, an attorney, an accountant, somebody who you say, I've been purpose presented this, what are your thoughts? And if you feel pressured, that's a real good warning sign. And also trust your instincts. A lot of times we get an internal kind of warning signal from our subconscious. We get, nervous or unsure. Trust your instincts. If it feels uncomfortable, step back and please for anyone watching the program in the series if you're feeling pressured, don't sign anything don't release any information because they're all bad people and they will lie to your face and they are trying to steal from you and take advantage of you. And it's sad that we wanna trust individuals, but the good grifters, the good scam artists, are Oscar award-winning actors. They are very good. They're well-spoken they're well-dressed and they are smooth talkers and they are aggressive and they will try to convince you and they just want the end game, whatever it might be you giving them a chat, giving them access to your accounts while transferring funds. So just please be careful out there as you try to navigate through this complexity and turn to trusted advisors like David and other members at Stein Spilling and other law firms and accounting firms in the region, Sandy Spring bank, there are people out there who will try to help if we can. So we've covered a great amount of information today. David before we wrap up are there any final words that you'd like to share with our audience today?
- I would encourage people in the audience to take what Phil said to heart. And it is very important as the tax and estate laws have gotten more complicated to look to your accountant, look to your counsel, look to your money managers for good guidance and to steer you into the future, to protect your wealth. And especially in the case of younger people to enhance your wealth. Phil, it's been a pleasure.
- Thank you so much, David, and to the audience thank you for joining our discussion series. If you go to sandyspringbank.com, click on wealth, click on the discussion series library. There is a number of interviews that I've hosted with professionals like David in the areas of law, tax, finance and healthcare. You know this, when you watch today's program, you will not ask for any information, not even your name. This is a community program, it's an educational hub. So please share information about the series with family, friends, neighbors both locally and around the country. We hope you'll be able to come back and watch different programs as we release new content. I also host a seminar library on the sandyspringbank.com website. We do ask for your name. If you watch one of the seminars that I host and how you heard about the event but we did not ask for your contact information and no one were reaching out to you unless you ask. If you have any questions for David and I our contact information is listed at the end. If you bank would Sandy Spring bank. Thank you for banking with us. And if you don't bank with us, I hope you might consider Sandy Spring bank as a partner to help you navigate through whatever issues you might be facing. We'd love to help if we can. So on behalf of Sandy Spring bank, I hope you're safe. Take care, and please have a wonderful day.
Disclosure:
Sandy Spring Trust does not endorse or recommend the services of any person or entity not affiliated with Sandy Spring Bank.
The opinions and statements expressed by David De Jong and Stein Sperling reflect their own views and do not necessarily represent the views of Sandy Spring Trust.
Wealth and Insurance products are not FDIC insured, not guaranteed, and may lose value.
This material is provided solely for educational purposes by Sandy Spring Trust, a division of Sandy Spring Bank, and is not intended to constitute tax, legal, accounting or healthcare advice, or a recommendation for any investment strategy or transaction. You should consult your own tax, legal, accounting, financial or healthcare advisors regarding your specific situation and needs. Our staff will work closely with your advisors to coordinate your overall plan.
