Business Decisions Made 15 Years Ago Aren’t Working Out

By: Myron Friesen

About 15 years ago, we went to an estate planning meeting with a life insurance company. We were concerned about estate taxes, so we thought we had to do something. We started an irrevocable trust with life insurance, thinking the proceeds would be used to pay estate taxes. Now we realize that the trust lists all the children as beneficiaries, and they could just take the money and run. So how will taxes be paid?

In addition, after that, we put all our land into an LLC and we have a C corporation for our farm operation. We then gifted some ownership to all of our children to reduce our estate value. It is a mess, and now we’re trying to get some of that ownership back and direct it where we desire. Can we fix this?