The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently extended the time to elect portability of the deceased spousal unused exclusion (DSUE) amount for estates not otherwise required to file an estate tax return. After getting swamped with extension requests from taxpayers who missed the two-year deadline, the IRS announced that it would allow five years to make a late claim on portability. Read on to learn more about this change and how it applies to your estate planning clients.

Limited liability companies are typically run by a sole member or some or all of its members. However, sometimes it is best for a limited liability company (LLC) to be managed by a third party nonmember manager. Keep reading to learn how to advise your business-owning clients about when to consider using a nonmember manager. 

An arbitration agreement is a contract that states that the signors cannot sue each other in court. Rather, the remedy for any perceived wrongdoing on the part of the signors is arbitration. Arbitration is similar to mediation except that the former is binding upon the parties. Businesses oftentimes prefer arbitration to a court process as a way to keep litigation costs down and to keep the dispute confidential.

A court might not honor an arbitration agreement and allow a suit to proceed if there was fraud or if the agreement is unconscionable. An unconscionable agreement would be one that was unreasonably unfair, unjust, or oppressive to a signor.

In a case out of Pennsylvania, a court did find that an arbitration agreement was unconscionable.