In 2020, this client, a biotech executive, wanted to turbo-charge his estate plan by using ‘discounts’ to 1) immediately reduce his estate tax liability and 2) exclude future growth from his taxable estate.

Here’s a 41 sec clip from the full video we posted on LinkedIn:

Long story short – he transfers a total of $18.5M to two Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts, but, for gift tax purposes, it’s as if he only transferred $12.7M (because of these ‘discounts’).

By doing this, his upfront estate tax savings equals $18.5M minus $12.7M = $5.8M x 40% estate tax rate = $2.3M. Not bad.

Of course, with every estate planning strategy comes a long list of pros and cons. For this (fictional) client, the pros outweighed the cons. But that’s certainly not every client. Most often, for more complex planning, it’s only a handful.

Cheers!

Disclaimer: For information purposes only and should not be interpreted as legal, tax or financial advice. Always consult your CPA/tax advisor/attorney (or reach out to us;) to discuss your specific situation. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The reports shown in this video do not represent actual client data.