THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, MAy 30, 2025 Page 19 SOUNDS | FROM PAGE 18 had a blast – so many loved seeing them and appreciated them being there. So many old friends reconnecting after decades; friends from overseas and across the country came; Saugus Classmates that left in Jr. High and that went to other High Schools came. How special it was for so many people to see each other after over 40 years. Reach out to your friends who are not on Facebook to give them some early notice in case they may want to attend and need to make travel plans. Some of our Classmates have kept in touch with some of our High School teachers, and they attended our last two Saugus High Reunion events – we hope they’ll join us again. Feel free to reach out to any of your favorite teachers that you may want there – I’m sure they would love to hear from you. More information is forthcoming. Any questions, please feel free to reach out to Andrea or Pete: Andrea Saunders (1980 Class President) can be reached at paulgreens@aol.com or 978482-5787. Pete Nicolo can be reached THE SOUNDS | SEE PAGE 22 5 OR 5 POWER A 5 or 5 power provides a beneficiary of a Trust the power in any calendar year to withdraw the greater of $5,000 or 5% of the Trust principal. Therefore, for any Trust that has assets less than $100,000, the beneficiary can withdraw up to $5,000. For any Trust that has more than $100,000 in assets, the beneficiary can withdraw up to 5% of the Trust assets. The situation usually occurs when the Settlor of a revocable Trust dies, which in turn results in the Trust becoming irrevocable and the Trust then provides for the benefit of a surviving spouse. Per the Internal Revenue Code, there has to be a limit on what the beneficiary can withdraw each year in order to avoid any negative tax consequences. If a Trust provision allowed the beneficiary to withdraw more than $5,000 or 5% of the Trust principal each year, then the IRS would consider this to be a “general” power of appointment and some or all of the Trust assets could be included in the beneficiary’s estate for estate tax purposes. What is one advantage of including such a provision in a trust document? Such a provision might be suitable in a situation of a second marriage wherein one spouse does not want the surviving spouse to have unfettered control over the Trust assets. Such a power would provide a minimum of a $5,000 withdrawal on the part of the surviving spouse each year. This could be important if the Trust itself generated very little income for the year that was required to be distributed to the surviving spouse pursuant to the terms of the Trust. Alternatively, if the Trust principal ended up being $1,000,000 at the time of the first spouse’s death, the surviving spouse could take up to $50,000 each year (5% of $1,000,000). Furthermore, such a right might put some of the Trust’s assets at risk if the surviving spouse was involved in litigation. Generally speaking, creditors can reach what you can reach as a beneficiary of a Trust. The 5 or 5 power also allows the beneficiary to withdraw up to 5% of the Trust’s assets, even if the withdrawal is not for an ascertainable standard such as for the health, education and support of the surviving spouse. This allows the surviving spouse to simply take a withdrawal without meeting any such standard. The surviving spouse would not have to answer to a Trustee that might not be so cooperative when it comes to Trust distributions. The other benefit of the 5 or 5 power is that so long as the surviving spouse does not exceed its parameters, upon the surviving spouse’s death, the assets in the Trust not subject to the 5 or 5 power will not be included in her taxable estate for estate tax purposes. In this situation, the first spouse to die has the ability to exempt $13.9 million in assets from his or her taxable estate by funding the so-called “family trust” portion of a marital deduction trust wherein the surviving spouse still would enjoy rights to income, discretionary Trustee distributions of principal to the surviving spouse based upon a health, education and support standard and the 5 or 5 power. Upon the surviving spouse’s death, the remaining Trust assets not subject to the 5 or 5 power will be distributed free of estate tax to the children of the first spouse to die. However, the Trust assets subject to the 5 or 5 power in the hands of the surviving spouse would be taxable in her estate upon her death. If her federal taxable estate ends up being $13.9 million or less, there would be no federal estate tax anyway. If there were $5,000,000 of Trust assets, at most, only $250,000 would be taxable in the surviving spouse’s estate. It also looks as though Congress may extend most of the key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act meaning the federal estate tax exemption may not be dropping down to approximately $6million as of January 1, 2026. A huge difference from an estate planning standpoint. Joseph D. Cataldo is an estate planning/elder law attorney,Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a masters degree in taxation. UNCLE JOHN | FROM PAGE 9 ed shelling me. I jumped into a hole and someone finally came over and told me to stay put. He left to get another guy and while he was gone, I waited, but by this time, I lost so much blood I did not care if he ever came back. He finally came back and took me to the way station, which was a couple of miles down the road. A doctor was there and when he saw me, he thought that because I was covered with blood, I had a stomach wound. He took a straight edge razor and sliced my shirt open. I kept telling him I was hit in the head. I had given myself first aid by wrapping a first aid packet around my head to stop the bleeding. He finally noticed that my head was bleeding — but there was not too much he could do at that time, as they could not give morphine to anyone with a head wound. He called for an ambulance and I was driven to a field hospital. There wounded soldiers were placed for help in the order of the most serious. Two medics debrided my head wound and a doctor stitched it . At this point in my life, I did not care whether I lived or died — I thought I was going to die anyway. The order of the day was if the hospital staff could get you up on your feet within 10 days you were not to be evacuated to England. The doctor tapped me on the shoulder and told the two medics not to evacuate me and told them I was going to make it. During those 10 days I do not remember getting any food. In combat I had gone several days without anything but I did have water. On the 10th day a doctor took out the stitches, put two compresses on my wound and sent me back to division headquarters by truck for reassignment. At Division Headquarters I was supposed to get a carbine but there were none left. The one I did get had the words “Here comes Hell” written on it. I wondered whatever happened to the guy who used it before me. We were losing about 60 men a day, in each company, as we hit the main line of resistance, and the Germans were as accurate as a bastard, as they had been in France for four years, and knew every nook and cranny. I lasted three and a half months at the front except for the 10 days in the field hospital. I was hit again in Vire and evacuated from Cherbourg. There were almost 10 months of continuous combat from the beaches of Normandy to the heart of Germany. On D-Day, in support of the 4th Infantry Division, they hit a German armored column at Sainte-Mère-Église, captured the town and opened the road to Montebourg. On July 25, the great drive from Saint-Lô began. The battalion made one of the first penetrations of the Siegfried Line at Aachen. Against counterattacks, we held this wedge for more than a month. After the Battle of the Bulge, we crossed the Rhine on March 8 and on VE Day the tankers were in the heart of Germany chasing the retreating Wehrmacht. During the bitter fighting in Europe, 2,999 men of the 2nd Infantry Division were killed, 10,924 wounded and 109 listed as missing. Those of us who made it back to the USA are grateful to this day. Uncle John was discharged after 13 months in the hospital on November 21, 1945. Once out of the Service, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in business and a master’s degree in engineering from Northeastern University. At the end of our visit, he said, “I was able to complete my education thanks to Uncle Sam and the G.I. Bill. God Bless America!!” Prior to World War II, Uncle John served six years in the United States National Guard. While in the Service he earned a Purple Heart with a Gold Leaf Cluster, a European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, a Good Conduct Medal and a World War II Victory Medal. After college he was employed at General Electric, and then Raytheon and assigned to the Hawke Missile Project. Uncle John passed away, at home, on March 11, 2013, just shy of his 97th birthday.
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