Reduce or Eliminate Estate (Death) Taxes

There are many estate planning tools that can reduce, or possibly eliminate, estate taxes:

§        Credit Shelter Trust:  This tool ensures that spouses use both of their unified estate tax credits rather than wasting one of them and paying $900,000 in needless estate taxes;

§        QTIP Trust:  This tool allows you to take advantage of the unlimited marital deduction to avoid estate taxes at death and still give your assets to children from a previous marriage;

§        Qualified Personal Residence Trust:  This tool allows you to give your home and/or vacation home to your heirs in a manner that reduces or eliminates gift and estate taxes while allowing you to live in it;

§        Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust:  This tool allows you to take an existing life policy, or buy a new one, and give the death benefits to your heirs without paying estate or gift taxes;

§        Charitable Trusts:  These tools allow you to sell highly appreciated assets, avoid income and estate taxes, receive a deduction, earn income on 100% of the sale proceeds and give something to charity;

§  Grantor Retained Income Trusts:  This tool allows you to give assets (e.g., stocks, bonds, real estate) to your heirs in a manner that reduces or eliminates gift and estate taxes while allowing you to enjoy the income produced by them for a period of years;

§        Family Limited Partnerships:  This tool allows you to transfer interests in a family business (including commercial real estate) during your lifetime to family members in a way that reduces or eliminates estate and gift taxes while allowing you to maintain control of the business;

§        Gift Giving:  This tool allows you to take advantage of annual tax-free gifts (currently $12,000) per each individual you give to.  You and your spouse can give a total of $24,000 to each of your heirs.  These gifts can be made outright, put in a trust or even be made to a life insurance trust that purchases life insurance thereby leveraging your modest gifts into a large death benefit for your heirs;