The Motley Fool - Trusts are impressively flexible, offering many ways for people to use them. Revocable trusts can encompass many people's entire estate-planning needs in a single document. On the other hand, professionals have tailored some types of trusts to fit very specific situations and types of assets. The life insurance trust, primarily designed to hold life insurance policies, is a prime example.
The Motley Fool - Since at least the time of the Roman Empire, wills have been used to ensure the orderly transfer of property from generation to generation. While the popular image of making a will often involves someone in a grave situation -- on the eve of battle, perhaps, or suffering from a terminal illness -- wills can be drawn up at any time, and they do provide a good way for people to state their wishes regarding who should receive their property after their death.
The Motley Fool - Trusts were first used in medieval England, and they have evolved to serve many purposes in modern law. The essential attribute of a trust is that it divides ownership of property into two pieces. One person, the trustee, holds the legal aspects of ownership and may control and take responsibility for the property. Another person, the beneficiary, holds the sole right to enjoyment of the property.
Reuters - GMAC, the auto finance and mortgage company, is seeking to become a bank holding company in order to access the government's $700 billion financial rescue plan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Reuters - GMAC LLC, the auto and mortgage finance company, on Tuesday said it had been approved to use the commercial paper funding facility created earlier this month by the U.S. Federal Reserve with the aim of easing pressure on the corporate credit market.
AP - President Bush's first treasury secretary says Congress should scrap plans for a new economic stimulus package and instead require that no future home mortgage be awarded without a 20 percent down payment.
Reuters - Auto retailers swung to a quarterly loss in the third quarter, beaten down by the decline in U.S. car sales, tight consumer credit, and a weakening U.S. economy as well as hurricane-related damages.
BusinessWeek Online - -- Income Taxes: Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would hold most income tax rates steady, making permanent the Bush tax cuts for the vast majority of individual taxpayers. With those cuts scheduled to expire in 2011, he would allow rates for households making more than $250,000 (or individuals making more than roughly $200,000) to return to earlier levels. Earners who now pay today's maximum 35% rate would see their top marginal rate go back to the 36.9% in effect in the Clinton years, for example.
AP - First, the $700 billion rescue for the economy was about buying devalued mortgage-backed securities from tottering banks to unclog frozen credit markets.
Reuters - The U.S. Treasury Department is studying how it could give relief to insurance companies under a $700 billion financial services rescue package, two sources familiar with the deliberations said on Friday.
