What Is Certain About Estate Planning In Uncertain Times?

 Group #1:  Estates of less than $5.59 million, doubled for married couples (value of all assets owned, including bank and investment accounts, closely held business assets, homes, other real estate, retirement accounts, life insurance proceeds payable upon your death and any other assets).

• Update your living will and durable powers of attorney with designated agents for medical and financial decisions.
• Make sure your revocable trust(s) have been recently reviewed and discussed, especially with respect to:
• The division of trust assets is still consistent with your intentions, including the division between spousal trusts and other trusts — with the current increase in the estate tax exemption, historical language could be catastrophic when compared to your intentions. 
• The timing and manner in which trust assets are to be distributed to your spouse, children, beneficiaries (outright to spouse, in trust for lifetime of spouse, percentage of assets at particular ages or period of time after date of death for children, lifetime trusts, special needs trusts or addiction trusts, etc.). 
• Honestly assessing the probability of potential risks to your beneficiaries (age and/or maturity issues, decision-making issues, addiction issues, special needs issues, potential divorce issues, etc.) and “matching” the risks with appropriate dispositive provisions.
• Designation of charitable beneficiaries.
• Designation of successor trustees.
• Make sure to address existing business succession issues/developing an effective business-succession plan and the coordination of that plan with your estate plan.

Group #2:  Estates between $5.59 mil-lion and $11.18 million (doubled for married couples)—includes all items in Group #1 and the following: 

• Utilize sophisticated estate planning techniques to explore the removal of assets that have material appreciation potential in the next seven to eight years. 
• Determine whether certain sophisticated estate planning techniques are appropriate in the next seven to eight years to utilize any unused estate tax exemption that is scheduled to expire Jan. 1, 2026.

Group #3:  Estates greater than $11.18 million (doubled for married couples)—all items included in Group #1 and Group #2. Also review the current and proven sophisticated estate-planning techniques that have been utilized for years (and possibly new techniques) to further reduce your estate tax exposure, including: ILITs, GRATs, IDGTs, CRUTs, CLATs, SLATs, FLPs, DAPTs, QPRTs — If you are in this group and have not heard these acronyms, you need to visit with an experienced estate-planning attorney and discuss the potential use of these techniques.

All that said, maybe the most important attribute of satisfactory estate planning is flexibility, both built-in flexibility in your current estate-planning documents and access to flexibility as tax laws change, composition and value of assets change, individual beneficiaries and related situations change, charitable organization leadership changes, the individual(s) designated to serve in various roles in your estate plan change, and your family business dynamics change (ownership, leadership, etc.).

When is a prudent time to either start addressing your estate plan or perform a comprehensive review of your existing estate plan? Marriage? The birth of your first child? As you plan for the cost of college education for your children? Divorce? As you start to have grandchildren? The receipt of a financial windfall or inheritance? As you retire? Correct answer: All of the above, but most important—now!