38 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 12 , 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com business Employment Matters – Are You a Brand Ambassador? Julia Gometz is the author of The Brandful Workforce: How Employees Can Make, Not Break Your Brand and worked at JetBlue for eight years in several capacities including Director of Employee Engagement. I recently talked to Julia about how to make organizations more brandful. Why is it important to be a Brand Ambassador? What organization doesn’t want their employees to spread the word about their product or service? We know that companies that are brandful have a stronger competitive edge and a greater emotional connection to their customers. It is a powerful message. How do you know when a workplace is brandful? When employees routinely talk about how proud they are of their organization, when they share customer feedback on social media, when they proudly wear branded merchandise and when they are actively involved in supporting their community on behalf of their workplace, then these employees are visibly brandful. What infl uenced you to write the Brandful Workforce? When I worked at JetBlue I was often asked how we got our employees to be such great brand ambassadors. I told them that JetBlue’s mission was to bring humanity back to air travel. Our employees had great pride in the company and it showed in their actions. Customers knew that they could count on JetBlue employees to go out of their way in their daily interactions with customers. I wanted to bring this message to other companies. How can small businesses create Brand Ambassadors? Small businesses have a special connection with their community and their customers. Share good news about the organization on social media. Encourage employees to share great customer reviews on a bulletin board or online and celebrate those reviews. Show others that customers really love the experience of working with you. Listen to employee ideas and act on them. Create a simple video and post it on the website. These are easy ways to create a great work environment that employees will be proud to share with others. If you would like more tips to create a great work environment contact Mindy directly at www.askmindynnow. com . Mindy Stern, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, ACC is a trusted HR advisor, career coach, author, speaker and president of AIM Resource Group Inc. Visit the website at www.aimresourcegroup. com or call 718-217- 1074 to get RESULTS! The Brandful Workforce is available on Amazon.com. Do you want your questions answered in this column? Send requests to: www.askmindynow. com The Elder Law Minute TM THE GIST OF GRANTOR TRUSTS BY RONALD A. FATOULLAH, ESQ. AND DEBBY ROSENFELD, ESQ. People utilize trusts for a myriad of reasons. Some clients like the idea of all of their assets being held under one umbrella. The trust is viewed as a big envelope or bucket into which all of a person’s assets are transferred; this allows for centralized asset management. Many people, for various reasons, wish to avoid the probate process. Transferring all of one’s holdings to a trust will accomplish that. Others look to trusts as a way to protect some or all of their assets from certain creditors. Regardless of the incentive for creating a trust, the term “grantor trust” is often bandied about in a way that is confusing to many. The purpose of this article is to explain what a grantor trust is and to help clarify some misconceptions. The Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”), as amended, provides that if a trust triggers any of the provisions that are found in Sections 671 through 679 of the Code, all income earned from that trust will be taxed to the grantor of the trust, regardless of who ultimately receives the income. The grantor is the person who created the trust and transferred his/her assets to the trust. Sometimes the grantor is referred to as the settlor or the creator. So, in other words, if a grantor transfers assets to a trust but simultaneously retains certain controls through various provisions in the trust, the grantor will be taxed on the trust income even though he ostensibly transferred the assets out of his name. If a trust provides that income and/ or principal is payable to the grantor, grantor trust status will be triggered. Grantor trust status will also be triggered if the grantor has control over who receives income and/or principal, retains the power to revoke or amend the trust, or has the right to borrow funds from the trust without suffi cient security or proper interest payments. Triggering grantor trust status has ramifi cations with respect to the income taxation of the trust’s assets. The provisions in Sections 671 thorough 679 do not have anything to do with whether the assets held by a trust are included in the grantor’s estate for purposes of estate taxation. Estate tax inclusion is governed by Sections 2035 through 2042 of the Code. For example, if a grantor transfers his personal residence to a trust but retains the right to the possession, use and enjoyment of the premises, the property will be included in his taxable estate when he dies. Similarly, if the grantor retains the right to receive income and/or principal from the trust, the assets will be included in the grantor’s estate. When a person is interested solely in asset management during his life but does not wish to relinquish control and is not concerned about estate taxes, a revocable trust would be the preferred vehicle. With a revocable trust, the grantor can maintain complete control over the assets and will receive all of the income during his lifetime. When the grantor dies, all of the assets will be included in his estate. Conversely, when estate taxes are a concern, i.e., the individual’s assets exceed $3,125,000 for New York State purposes and $5,430,000 for federal estate tax purposes, he might opt for a trust that has no estate inclusion. Clearly, with such a trust, the grantor will have very little control and no access to any income or principal. Often, when a client is interested in preserving assets in case he requires long-term care in the future, we recommend an income-only irrevocable trust. The grantor of this trust will continue to receive the income during his lifetime. Many individuals need the income derived from their assets to live on. This type of vehicle offers a perfect compromise. Provided the trust is drafted properly, the assets will be protected (after the passage of fi ve years), but the grantor will still enjoy the income from the trust during his lifetime. Because all these rules may be overwhelming to a lay person, it is important to seek proper counsel when engaging in estate and elder law planning. A seasoned attorney will be able to customize a trust based on the specifi c needs of the individual client. Ronald A. Fatoullah, Esq. is the principal of Ronald Fatoullah & Associates, a law fi rm that concentrates in elder law, estate planning, Medicaid planning, guardianships, estate administration, trusts, wills, and real estate. Debby Rosenfeld, Esq. is a senior staff attorney at the fi rm. The law fi rm can be reached at 718-261-1700, 516-466-4422, or toll free at 1-877-ELDER-LAW or 1-877-ESTATES. Mr. Fatoullah is also the co-founder of JR Wealth Advisors, LLC. The wealth management fi rm can be reached at 516-466-3300 or 800-353-3775. ELDER LAW RONALD FATOULLAH ESQ, CELA*
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