The new tax law has enough big changes that you need to review your estate plan to make sure that you are taking advantage of the best options in the new environment.
It is a good idea to review your estate plan with sufficient frequency to make sure it still does what you want in the most effective way. However, you should not wait to review your plans when something significant changes.
The significant change can be something in your life, such as a new spouse, a divorce, another child or a large increase in income. The significant change can also be a change in the legal environment, as is the case with the recently passed tax overhaul.
Many estate plans will need to be changed to take advantage of the new law as the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog discusses in “A Gift from the New Tax Act: Kill That Trust.”
One of the key changes for estate planning purposes, is that the estate tax exemption has been doubled.
This means people with estate plans that created trusts for the sole purpose of limiting their estate tax exposure may want to revisit their plans. They might now be better off revising those trusts or even getting rid of them altogether.
Make sure that you visit an estate planning attorney before you make a decision about your trust on your own. The doubling of the estate tax exemption is scheduled to expire in the future, so you will also want an expert opinion about how you should handle that.
Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (Dec. 26, 2017) “A Gift from the New Tax Act: Kill That Trust.”
