Estate Tax Exemption

With the estate, gift and GST exemption at nearly $11.5 million and scheduled to grow until 2026 when they will be cut in half, few advisers are focusing on wealth transfer tax planning for their clients.

This article discusses the "special power of appointment trust," designed to provide asset protection while providing a means for the grantor to benefit from the trust property, should the need arise.

President-elect Trump has proposed repealing the estate and gift tax. The best approach is to consider what repeal of the estate tax might mean, how it would affect clients with estate planning that is in process now, and how it may affect…

It seems like an extraordinary event. The gift tax exemption has grown from $30,000 in 1976 to $1 million through the end of 2010 and to $5 million for 2011 and 2012. The GST and estate tax exemptions also grew to $5 million for 2010, 2011…

In LISI Employee Benefits and Retirement Planning Newsletter #427, Bob Keebler and Mark Merric wrote that: “…it does not appear that there has been a single favorable ruling that an inherited individual retirement account ("IRA") is…

We all know the impossible has happened: no estate tax, no generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax and no “step-up” in basis for those who die this year. Many thought and continue to think Congress will do what many of its most prominent…

2009 will represent a watershed year for estate planners and their clients due to the increase in estate and generation-skipping tax exemptions to $3,500,000.

In the 2001 Tax Act (known as EGTRRA), many changes were made to the estate tax system including increasing the exemption for this year to $3.5 million, lowering the top rate to 45%, eliminating the state death tax credit and culminating in…

Today, many states have a smaller estate tax exemption than that allowed under Federal law, which is now $1.5 million and will rise in future years. This means the estate of a married person will pay an estate tax to the state if he or she…

The estate tax exemption is not portable. As a result, if one spouse dies without having used the exemption, it disappears, and the surviving spouse cannot use the deceased spouse's exemption. While portability legislation has been…