Estate Planning

Passing assets on: beneficiary designations, step-up in basis, trusts as beneficiaries, and transfer taxes.

6 articles in this topic.

• Charitable Lead and Charitable Remainder Trusts

  A CLT sends income to charity and the remainder to family; a CRT does the reverse. Both work the §7520 rate to compress gifts and defer capital gains.

• GRATs, SLATs, and Other Advanced Transfer Strategies

  Grantor retained annuity trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, and defective grantor trusts: moving appreciation out of a taxable estate cheaply.

• Step-Up in Basis Under §1014 and Why It Drives Asset Location

  IRC §1014 erases unrealized capital gains at death. Which assets receive the step-up and which do not determines where wealth should sit during life.

• Trusts as IRA Beneficiaries: See-Through Rules and the 10-Year Trap

  Naming a trust as IRA beneficiary means meeting the see-through requirements, and after SECURE those rules meet the 10-year payout in odd ways.

• Beneficiary Designations: The Most Overlooked Estate Document

  Beneficiary designations override your will. Why they are the most common and most expensive estate-planning error, and how to audit yours this year.

• Federal Estate and Gift Tax After OBBBA: The Permanent $15M Exemption

  The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the higher federal estate and gift exemption permanent and raised it to $15M per person from 2026. What changes.