Since President Biden’s election, we’ve been peering into our crystal balls to see what changes our higher-net worth clients can expect with respect to taxes on their estates, capital gains and income.

Although we still don’t know exactly what changes will take effect and when they will be implemented, all signs strongly point to the window closing within the next few months on many beneficial techniques for clients who want to minimize taxes (in all forms) for future generations.

Our focus is on those with current or expected net worth of $4M+ Individuals, $8M+ Couples, as these amounts are slightly above the minimum thresholds within the Democratic proposals for reduced estate tax exemptions.

Please reach out if you’d like to set up a meeting to review your plan and/or explore additional planning strategies. Legacy Program members like yourself of course are provided priority; however, we are trying to start the planning process now because when/if the bills are passed and become effective, they may be effective immediately or effective shortly thereafter (e.g. the end of 2021).

We need to start discussing these Planning discussions and process by October 1st to have proper time to effectively and strategically plan (assuming a 12/31/2021 planning deadline), or we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to complete the planning.

Many commentators have referred to the last two years as the “Golden Age of Estate Planning…” in terms of all of the opportunities and tools available for affluent families to minimize or eliminate estate taxes (e.g. high estate tax exemptions, low interest rates, various planning techniques available, etc.). That “Golden Age” seems pretty clearly to be coming to an end. If the curtain doesn’t close on the “Golden Age” within the next two to four months, the estate tax exemption per person is already set to drop from $11.7M to approximately $6M in four years.

With the potential end of this “Golden Age” upon us, this is a call to action for higher-net worth clients to set up a time to talk with us and their other trusted advisors in order to determine what steps should be taken to avoid these avoidable death taxes. We may also determine that you don’t need or want to do additional planning at this time – that’s a perfectly fine result – we just need to have the conversation to help you make an informed decision.

We are already busy working on estate tax planning matters with clients who have gotten a jump on discussions and projects. If and when a new estate tax law is passed, we do not expect that Congress will give us enough advance warning before the law takes effect to allow us to serve everyone who wants to engage in estate tax planning. We will give first priority to our Legacy Program Clients who contact us without delay (before October 1st). We recommend that you schedule a time to discuss your options or considerations before we are under the gun and the demand for these services causes us to be unavailable to finish before a new law may be enacted.

This type of advanced planning realistically requires about three months when factoring in the need to involve additional advisors, obtain appraisals, and other elements.