Palm Beach Daily News, Sunday, December 14, 2008

Palm Beach Daily News, Sunday, December 14, 2008 DID THE FURNITURE CARPENTER MAKE THE ALTERATIONS TO MY OFFICE DESK THAT I WANTED? YES, MR. EPSTEIS12\S- IT WILL NOW CONVERT (1.4 INTO A MASSAGE TABLE IN LESS THAN A MINUTE. OH, THE HARDSHIPS OF DOING TIME! EFTA00624684 Palm Beach Daily News, Sunday, December 14,2008 LIBERMAN Family limited partnerships protect assets From Page AU home from your taxable estate, via a qualified personal residence trust (QPRT). This type of trust is blessed by the IRS. In fact, the IRS even provides forms to set one up. A qualified personal residence trust, however, often is impractical if assets also are being split among children and grandchildren. Have a family limited partner- ship? Now, can he a great time to get a bundle of depreciated stocks out of your estate and make gifts at their lower values to family mem- bers. While the IRS has been attack- ing this strategy, Mendlowitz says, the key is that you strictly follow the terms of the family limited partnership agreement you set up. Family limited partnerships give its limited partners certain rights, such as to receive account- ing periodically and to have pe- riodic meetings. IRS challenges, he says, generally involve family limited partnerships when those rules are not followed. Family limited partnerships also can prove a great way to pro- tect the assets from creditors of kids and grandchildren, who may be having financial problems with their business or ultimately get di- vorced. Was there a death in the family this year? You're allowed to value an es- tate for federal estate tax purposes either on the date of death or six months later, Mendlowitz notes. So evaluate whether taxable values may be significantly lower if you use the six months later val- ue, he suggests. Program can assist recovery of pictures By BILL HOSTED Cox Nchs Smut- Q: My son was in Europe for six weeks and took about 500 pictures, but he had a problem with his camera. Unexpectedly, pictures would disappear. I used a free version of PC Inspector File Recovery. I was able to see all the pictures, but about the bot- tom 60 percent were gray. Could you recommend a product or a service for recovery? - Phillip R. Derengowsk A: A program I have used successfully can be found here: www.lexar.com/software/image_ rescue3.html. I've never used PC Inspector File Recovery. But it's free and, as you discovered, did no harm and worked after a fashion. Note: Phillip sent a follow-up saying he used the Lexar product, and it recovered and saved most of the photos. A few could not be recovered — proba- bly because of fragmentation on the card or an erro so serious it defeats file recovery software. I recom- mend the Lexar program. WINSLOW From Page AU elation. Chamber of Commerce has hired inde• pendent contractor Robin Miller as the new Worth Avenue Association admin- meetings, but more information can be obtained through Rotary Executive Sec- retary Kim Parkey at 799-6154. EFTA00624685