Start Planning Trusts Now for Potential Estate Tax Changes, Advisors Say

The end of favorable estate plan provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may still be more than two years away, but advisors say that gives clients barely enough time to make sure their trusts are in order. Neil Carbone shares his insight with Financial Advisor on what to consider when planning.

“Gifts in trust provide additional benefits, including estate tax minimization for future generations and asset protection,” said Neil V. Carbone, partner, trusts and estates at the law firm Farrell Fritz, P.C. in Uniondale, New York.

Options include spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs), which involve a transfer of assets to a trust of which the transferor’s spouse is a lifetime beneficiary and the transferor’s descendants are the successor beneficiaries, he said.

“Because the spouse is a beneficiary, distributions to the spouse could also indirectly benefit the transferor spouse,” Carbone said. “The trust could be set up as a ‘grantor trust’ for income tax purposes, which would require the transferor to pay the taxes on trust’s income, avoiding depletion of trust assets while also further depleting the transferor’s own assets.

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Start Planning Trusts Now For Potential Estate Tax Changes, Advisors Say (fa-mag.com)