ESTATE PLANNING STILL MATTERS

• Thursday, March 23, 2017
• Category: Estate Planning and Estate Administration

Despite inflation indexing, certain families will still need advanced estate and gift tax planning: Estate Planning Still Matters

• Those where the value of their estate at death is likely to exceed the applicable exclusion (or the amount of applicable exclusion they have remaining);
• Those who want to make lifetime gifts while still preserving the exclusion until death for income tax purposes (to secure a tax-free step-up in cost basis); and
• Those where state estate tax may motivate planning for additional wealth transfer.

These families may benefit from an estate planning strategy that: (1) transfers assets free of gift or estate tax, (2) freezes or reduces the value of their estate, and, (3) preserves as much applicable exclusion as possible. When planned effectively, a GRAT strategy can accomplish all three of these objectives.

Reference: Bernstein; The Path from GRAT to Great; Efficient Wealth Transfer with Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (2017)

Kindly visit our Estate Planning and Estate & Gift Tax Planning websites for more information on this topic.