King & Wood, P.A.

Why Your Trusts Need to Be Reviewed for Potential Tax Issues

“The estate tax exemption amount gets a lot of press. However, that isn’t the tax provision most people need to be aware of in estate planning.”

You’ve undoubtedly seen the headlines about the end of the generous federal estate and gift tax exemptions coming at the end of 2025. Nevertheless, most Americans don’t have estates worth $13,610,000 or $27 million for couples. A recent article, “Is there a tax trap in your trust?” from Los Angeles Daily News, says we should be more concerned with an income tax issue for trusts, especially if they were created years ago.

Trusts created before 2010 commonly contained a trust provision to divide the trust in two upon the death of the first spouse. There were two reasons to split the trust. One was to be sure the surviving spouse didn’t change the named beneficiaries and leave the assets in the trust to someone else, like a new spouse.

The second reason was so each spouse’s estate tax exemption could be used. The use of both spouses’ exemptions mattered more way back then because the exemption was far lower than today: $1 million in 2002.

After 2010, if a married couple had a trust worth $5 million and their trust left everything to each other, the surviving spouse could inherit the trust and then change beneficiaries, disinheriting any offspring from a prior marriage. Even if they didn’t do this, when the second spouse died, there would be an estate tax on the estate's value over the second spouse’s tax exemption.

The A/B Trust solved the problem. The “B” part of the trust was an irrevocable trust and owned the deceased spouse’s share of assets and used the decedent spouse’s estate tax exemption. In 2010, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 became law, and the portability of the estate tax exemption for the first spouse to die was established. The surviving spouse had the option to file an election to preserve the deceased spouse’s estate tax exemption to be applied upon their own death.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act came along and raised the estate tax exemption from $5,490,000 to $11,180,000 in 2018. With increases for inflation, most married couples today don’t concern themselves with both spouse’s exemption amounts. However, a new issue must be considered and discussed with your estate planning attorney, especially if you live in a community property state.

When the first spouse dies, all the jointly owned assets receive a step-up in income tax basis in community property states (but only a step-up on the half attributed to the decedent spouse in separate property states). If you purchased an asset for $100, your basis is $100. If you sold it for $1,000, you’d have a profit or gain of $900. However, if the stock was worth $1,000 when the first spouse died, the new basis is $1,000 in a community property state. The beneficiary can sell the stock for $1,000 with no gain. When the second spouse dies, there’s another step-up on income tax basis. However, assets in a “B” trust—those of the first spouse to die—don’t receive another step-up in basis.

The result could be a significant capital gain when the assets are sold, especially if a lot of time has passed since the first spouse's death. If your trust hasn’t been reviewed or revised in a long time, you may want to update your trust, so the share of the first spouse to die goes instead into a marital trust.

A marital trust is drafted to protect contingent beneficiaries, typically the children from the marriage with the first spouse. It also serves to include assets in the surviving spouse’s estate, so the assets get that second step-up in basis.

This is an example of how changes in tax laws require trusts and estate plans to be reviewed by estate planning attorneys. Tax laws change, and personal situations do, too. You may have had a great plan when it was created. However, if your estate plan hasn’t been reviewed or updated in a while, it’s time to make an appointment with an experienced estate planning attorney.

Reference: Los Angeles Daily News (Oct. 20, 2024) “Is there a tax trap in your trust?”

Before They’re Gone—Estate Planning Strategies

“If you have not already been inundated with invitations to webinars, articles and newsletters regarding the estate planning you should consider doing before new legislation passes, you undoubtedly will receive these over the next few months.”

As Congress continues to hammer out the details on impending legislation, there are certain laws still in effect concerning estate planning. The article “Last Call for SLATs, GTRATs, and the Use of the Enhanced Gift Tax Exemption?” from Mondaq says now is the time to review and update your estate plan, just in case any beneficial strategies may disappear by year’s end.

Here are the top five estate planning items to consider:

Expect Exemptions to Take a Dive. Estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions are $11.7 million per person and are now scheduled to increase by an inflationary indexed amount through 2025. Even if there are no legislative changes, on January 1, 2026, this number drops to $5 million, indexed for inflation. Under proposed legislation, it will revert to $6,020,000 and will continue to be indexed for inflation. This is a “use it or lose it” exemption.

Married Couples Have Options Different Than Solos. Married persons who don’t want to gift large amounts to descendants have the option to gift the exemption amount to their spouse using a SLAT—Spousal Lifetime Access Trust. The spouses can both create these trusts for each other, but the IRS is watching, so certain precautions must be taken. The trusts should not be identical in nature and should not be created at the same time to avoid application of the “reciprocal trust” doctrine, which would render both trusts moot. Under proposed legislation, SLATs will be includable in your estate at death, but SLATs created and funded before the legislation is enacted will be grandfathered in. If this is something of interest, don’t delay.

GRATs and other Grantor Trusts May be Gone. They simply won’t be of any use, since proposed legislation has them includable in your estate at death. Existing GRATs and other grantor trusts will be grandfathered in from the new rules. Again, if this is of interest, the time to act is now.

IRA Rules May Change. People who own Individual Retirement Accounts with values above $10 million, combined with income of more than $450,000, may not be able to make contributions to traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and defined contribution plans under the proposed legislation. Individuals with large IRA balances may be required to withdraw funds from retirement plans, regardless of age. A minimum distribution may be an amount equal to 50% of the amount by which the combined IRA value is higher than the $10 million threshold.

Rules Change for Singles Too. A single person who doesn’t want to make a large gift and lose control and access may create and gift an exemption amount to a trust in a jurisdiction with “domestic asset protection trust” legislation and still be a beneficiary of such a trust. This trust must be fully funded before the new legislation is enacted, since once the law passes, such a trust will be includable in the person’s estate. Check with your estate planning attorney to see if your state allows this strategy.

Reference: Mondaq (Sep. 24. 2021) “Last Call for SLATs, GTRATs, and the Use of the Enhanced Gift Tax Exemption?”

Gift-Tax Exemptions are Treated Differently by IRS and Medicaid

“Most people have heard that each individual is allowed to gift $15,000 per year to another person without paying a gift tax. However, exactly what the gift tax is, and the consequences of going beyond $15,000, are less clear.”

Different government agencies have different rules for the same things. It’s a hard lesson, especially for those who try to use their $15,000 annual gift tax exclusion for asset protection for long term care. The results are not good.

A recent article from The News Enterprise makes it clear: “Medicaid and IRS don’t view gift-tax-exemption in same way.”

To understand the exclusion better, let’s start by looking at what the amount is being excluded from. The IRS generally allows each person to gift a total of $11.7 million in gifts during their lifetime and after death without incurring a gift tax. There are exceptions, but this is true in most cases. However, that first $15,000 given to each person within each calendar year is excluded from the total amount.

If a woman gives her three children $15,000 each per year for five years, she has given away a total of $225,000. However, this amount is not deducted from the $11.7 million that she is allowed within her lifetime non-taxable gift amount.

However, if the same woman gave her children $16,000 each for five years, the extra $3,000 per year must be deducted from her lifetime non-taxable gift limit. Unless she reaches the $11.7 million after her death, her estate will still not pay taxes on the gifts. She will be required to file a form every year letting the IRS know that she is reducing her limit.

The $15,000 exclusion each year simplifies the ability to give gifts without cumbersome reporting requirements. However, it creates huge—and costly—problems when used in an attempt to become eligible for Medicaid. This federally funded program was created to help low-income people pay for medical and nursing home care. A person’s assets and any financial transactions made within a five-year lookback period are considered when determining eligibility.

What most people don’t know is that Medicaid does not allow the gift tax exclusion to be used for the lookback period.

Remember the woman who gave her three children $15,000 each year for five years? If she goes into a nursing facility in the fifth year, after giving her final set of gifts, the IRS won’t count any of those gifts made against her lifetime gift tax exemption. However, Medicaid will count the full amount—$225,000—as if those assets were available to pay for her care. The penalty period will make it necessary for her or her family to pay for care, possibly for five years.

To take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion safely when Medicaid may be in the future, an estate planning attorney can create an Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust to hold assets. This is a hybrid trust used to separate assets from the grantor just enough to begin the five-year lookback period while holding property within the grantor’s taxable estate, allowing for a continuing opportunity to take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion without triggering a new five-year look back at each gift.

The IRS and Medicaid work under different rules and understanding what each agency requires can protect the family and those needing nursing home care without creating expensive and stressful results. In addition, some Medicaid planning techniques may work in some states but not in others.

Reference: The News Enterprise (Sep. 14, 2021) “Medicaid and IRS don’t view gift-tax-exemption in same way”

 

Are 529 Plans Part of Your Estate?

“People tend to think of ‘529’ education-savings plans as an excellent way to save and invest tax-free for college or schooling costs, and they are.”

Estate planning attorneys, accountants and CPAs say that 529s are more than good ways to save for college. They’re also highly flexible estate planning tools, useful far beyond education spending, that cost practically nothing to set up. In the very near future, the role of 529s could expand greatly, according to the article “A Loophole Makes ‘529’ Plans Good Wealth Transfer Tools. Here’s How to Use Them” from Barron’s.

Most tactics to reduce the size of an estate are irrevocable and cannot be undone, but the 529 allows you to change the beneficiaries of a 529 account. Even the owners can be changed multiple times. Here’s how they work, and why they deserve more attention.

The 529 is funded with after tax dollars, and all money taken out of the account, including investment gains, is tax fre,e as long as it is spent on qualified education expenses. That includes tuition, room and board and books. What about money used for non-qualified expenses? Income taxes are due, plus a 10% penalty. Only the original contribution is not taxed, if used for non-qualified expenses.

Most states have their own 529 plans, but you can use a plan from any state. Check to see if there are tax advantages from using your state’s plan and know the details before you open an account and start making contributions.

Each 529 account owner must designate a single beneficiary, but money can be moved between beneficiaries, as long as they are in the same family. You can move money that was in a child’s account into their own child’s account, with no taxes, as long as you don’t hit gift tax exclusion levels.

In most states, you can contribute up to $15,000 per beneficiary to a 529 plan. However, each account owner can also pay up to five years’ worth of contributions without triggering gift taxes. A couple together may contribute up to $150,000 per beneficiary, and they can do it for multiple people.

There are no limits to the number of 529s a person may own. If you’re blessed with ten grandchildren, you can open a 529 account for each one of them.

For one family with eight grandchildren, plus one child in graduate school, contributions were made of $1.35 million to various 529 plans. By doing this, their estate, valued at $13 million, was reduced below the federal tax exclusion limit of $11.7 million per person.

Think of the money as a family education endowment. If it’s needed for a crisis, it can be accessed, even though taxes will need to be paid.

To create a 529 that will last for multiple generations, provisions need to be made to transfer ownership. Funding 529 plans for grandchildren’s education must be accompanied by designating their parents—the adult children—as successor owners, when the grandparents die or become incapacitated.

The use of 529s has changed over the years. Originally only for college tuition, room and board, today they can be used for private elementary school or high school. They can also be used to take cooking classes, language classes or career training at accredited institutions. Be mindful that some expenses will not qualify—including transportation costs, healthcare and personal expenses.

Reference: Barron’s (May 29, 2021) “A Loophole Makes ‘529’ Plans Good Wealth Transfer Tools. Here’s How to Use Them”

When Should Children Receive an Inheritance?

“Is it better to help your children when you’re still alive? Or wait until after you die?”

Should an inheritance remain an inheritance, given to children only after their parents die, or should parents use some of the money to help their kids out while they are still living? That’s a question that many families grapple with, reports a recent article “When to Give Inheritance Money to Your Kids,” from The Wall Street Journal.

Not every family can afford to give their children an advance on their inheritance, but for those who can, there are some things to consider:

Some financial advisors believe that “gifting with warm hands” is a better way to go. Parents can enjoy seeing their children and grandchildren benefit from having the help, based on when it is needed. Decoupling an inheritance from parental death is a happier scenario than the alternative.

Others believe that current financial needs, taxes and the tax situations of the parents and children ought to be the deciding factor. First, is there enough money for the parents to live comfortably in retirement? That includes being prepared for the cost of an unexpected health crisis that might lead them to need short- and long-term care. Follow that by understanding the tax situation of both parents and heirs. Once those answers are fully formed, then a discussion about gifting can move forward.

Another school of thought is to stop saving every penny and enjoy life to its fullest right here, right now. Some people are more concerned with maxing out their 401(k) plans than enjoying their lives. A healthy balance between protecting assets for later years, creating wealth for the next generation and having some fun too is the goal for many families.

Regardless of how you see your situation, one thing is sure: if you have any concerns about how your children will handle an inheritance, make a gift while you are living. You’ll get to see how they handle it, responsibility or recklessly. This may inform your planning for the future, including the use of spendthrift trusts.

The pandemic has forced many people to confront their own mortality and consider how they really want to spend the rest of their lives, as well as their assets. Many parents are preparing to make changes in their estate and gifting plans to accommodate needs that have arisen as a result of COVID’s economic impact.

Talk with your children about finances—yours and theirs. Discuss their needs, especially if they have been unemployed for an extended period of time. If they need money for something critical, like paying for health insurance or catching up on student loans, the gift should be made with a clear understanding of its intended purpose.

Your estate planning attorney can help create a plan that works while you are living and after you have passed. Trusts may be a strategic plan for sharing assets while you are alive, with some tax advantages.

Reference: The Wall Street Journal (April 30, 2021) “When to Give Inheritance Money to Your Kids”

Common Mistakes when Making Beneficiary Designations

“Once you’ve bought an annuity or a life insurance policy and named your beneficiaries, you may never think about those beneficiary designations again. However, that could be a big mistake.”

Let’s say you divorce and remarry and forget to change your beneficiary from your ex-spouse. Your ex-spouse will be smiling all the way to the bank. There won’t be much that your new spouse could do, if you forgot to make that change before you die. Any time there is a life change, including happy events, like marriage, birth or adoption, your beneficiary designations need to be reviewed, says the article “One Beneficiary Mistake You Really Don’t Want to Make” from Kiplinger.

If there are new people in your life you would like to leave a bequest to, like grandchildren or a charitable organization you want to support as part of your legacy, your beneficiary designations will need to reflect those as well.

For people who are married, their spouse is usually the primary beneficiary. Children are contingent beneficiaries who receive the proceeds upon death, if the primary beneficiary dies before or at the same time that you do. It is wise to notify any insurance company or retirement fund custodian about the death of a primary beneficiary, even if you have properly named contingent beneficiaries.

When there are multiple grandchildren, things can get a little complicated. Let’s say you’re married and have three adult children. The first beneficiary is your spouse, and your three children are contingent beneficiaries. Let’s say Sam has three children, Dolores has no children and James has two children, for a total of five grandchildren.

If both your spouse and James, die before you do, all of the proceeds would pass to your two surviving children, and James’ two children would effectively be disinherited. That’s probably not what you would want. However, there is a solution. You can specify that if one of your children dies before you and your spouse, their share goes to his or her children. This is a “per stirpes” distribution.

This way, each branch of the family will receive an equal share across generations. If this is what you want, you’ll need to request per stirpes, because equal distribution, or per capita, is the default designation. Not all insurance companies make this option available, so you’ll need to speak with your insurance broker to make sure this is set up properly for insurance or annuities.

Any assets that have a named designated beneficiary are not controlled by your will. Consequently, when you are creating or reviewing your estate plan, create a list of all of your assets and the desired beneficiaries for them. Your estate planning attorney will help review all of your assets and means of distribution, so your wishes for your family are clear.

Reference: Kiplinger (March 23, 2021) “One Beneficiary Mistake You Really Don’t Want to Make”

Should Inherited Money Be Equally Split Between Family Members

“When you’re planning to divide your estate unequally, explain the reasons to your heirs, and remember: They might be hurt anyway.”

Leaving an equal amount to adult children works for many families, but equal is not always equitable. In those cases, leaving different amounts to heirs can lead to irreparable breaks within the family. A recent article titled “The Unequal Inheritance: It Can Work, or It Can ‘Destroy Relationships’” from The New York Times examines the problem and some of the solutions. There are times, however, when even the fairest of decisions doesn’t heal the “Mom always liked you best” hurt, imagined or otherwise.

Unequal inheritances can trigger sibling fighting after a parent dies, some of which end up in court, especially if one child thinks that a parent was being overly influenced by the sibling who ended up with the bigger inheritance.

Parents need to explain their decision to each child, individually and as a group, or even seek mediation. Many estate planning attorneys encourage a family meeting, where everyone is in a neutral location, to discuss the parent’s wishes and estate plan. In some cases, the children understand when one of the siblings is disabled or has a lower earning potential.

Another reason for unequal inheritances is to balance things out when one child received significant support that others did not need. Equalization of gifts can be documented in an estate plan, as heirs may need to be reminded of the parent’s generosity at an earlier date. If this isn’t addressed, the siblings who received less help during the parent’s lifetime may resent their decision to give equally.

What about the caregiving child? Some parents decide to give extra to the adult child who became their primary caregiver. That usually takes the shape of the family home, a larger cash distribution or life insurance proceeds. However, siblings don’t always agree on how this is handled. Some will see the child’s decision to care for their parents as manipulative.

Blended families with stepchildren run into complications often. The growth in stepfamilies is a big part of why Americans 50 and older left their children unequal bequests, which more than doubled from 16 percent in 1995 to 35 percent in 2010, as reported in a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

At the same time, the study also found that the longer the relationship, the more likely the parent would leave stepchildren inheritances equal to that of a biological or adopted child.

Even when parents intend to split the estate equally, failing to plan for taxes can leave children with different inheritances. This happens when parents leave different types of assets to different heirs.

If a parent left a $500,000 IRA to one child and a $500,000 taxable brokerage account to another, the child who received the IRA will pay federal income taxes up to 37 percent on every withdrawal, which now must be done within ten years of the death of the parent. The child with the brokerage account would have to pay a long-term capital gains tax of up to 20 percent, when an appreciated asset was sold.

Generally speaking, IRA and other tax deferred accounts should have all children as equal beneficiaries. These accounts are usually outside of the probate estate. A house may be left in a trust or the will, with directions for the house to be sold and all assets divided equally.

There is no way around it—inheritances are seen as a proxy for love, and any unequal distribution will be felt as such, even by the most rational of people. Speak with your estate planning attorney to learn how to avoid these scenarios and consider holding a family meeting to make sure your intentions and the reasons behind your intentions are made clear to all concerned.

Reference: The New York Times (Feb. 19, 2021) “The Unequal Inheritance: It Can Work, or It Can ‘Destroy Relationships’”

 

Prince’s Estate Troubles Back in the Headlines

“The IRS determined that Prince's estate is worth $163.2 million, well above the $82.3 million valuation submitted by Comerica Bank & Trust, the estate's administrator.”

The Internal Revenue Service has said the executors of Prince’s estate made a serious mistake in their calculations, reducing its value by about $80 million, as reported in the article “IRS says Prince’s estate undervalued by 50%, triggering another dispute in settlement” from the Star Tribune.

The discrepancy comes from the value of music publishing and recording interests, according to court documents. The IRS claims Prince’s estate owes $32.4 million in federal taxes, about double the tax bill as valued by Comerica, a financial services giant. That is a pricey difference, but it is not the only bad news for heirs.

The IRS has slapped the estate with a $6.4 million accuracy related penalty, to be paid by Prince’s estate, because of the sheer size of the undervaluation.

Estimates of Prince’s estate’s net worth have varied from $100 to $300 million, since the time of his death. There was no will and no estate plan when Prince died in 2016, creating one of the largest and most complicated probate court proceedings in Minnesota’s history.

Comerica and the law firm representing the financial institution maintain that the estate valuations are accurate. This past summer, Comerica sued the U.S. Tax Court in Washington, D.C., charging the agency with having many mistakes in its calculations.

The IRS believes the fair market value of Prince’s ownership of NPG Music Publishing should be $36.9 million, and not $21 million as calculated by the estate. The estate placed the value of his ownership of NPG Records at $19.5 million, and the IRS says it is actually worth $46.5 million.

With a case dragging on for more than four years, Prince’s six sibling heirs are increasingly unhappy. Prince’s heirs range in age from 50 to 80 and one brother has already died of heart disease in 2019. They have seen the estate shrink, as tens of millions of dollars are being paid to consultants and lawyers.

In the meantime, Primary Wave, a company that invests in music copyrights, has been very interested in the estate, and two of the siblings have already agreed to sell large portions of their rights to Primary Wave. The company recently spent a reported $100 million to purchase an 80% interest in Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nick’s publishing rights, and Bob Dylan sold his song catalog to a different company for around $400 million.

Eventually, when the case does settle, the siblings will enact their own “transition plan” to the Carver County Probate court, according to recent court filings.

Reference: Star Tribune (Jan. 2, 2021)  “IRS says Prince’s estate undervalued by 50%, triggering another dispute in settlement”

 

Should a GRAT Be Part of My Estate Plan?

“Low interest rates and looming potential tax changes make this a good time for high-net-worth clients to use a special tool to transfer wealth: the grantor-retained annuity trust (GRAT), a strategy to reduce future estate taxes, by transferring assets to beneficiaries without using the lifetime gift tax exclusion.”

A Grantor-Retained Annuity Trust, or GRAT, is funded by the grantor, the person who creates the trust, in exchange for a stream of annuity payments at a predetermined interest rate—the IRS Section 7520 rate. The interest rate in December 2020 is 0.6%, as reported in the article “Transferring Wealth With This Trust Can Yield Big Tax Advantages” from Financial Advisor.

GRAT assets need only appreciate greater than the Section 7520 rate over the term of the trust, and any excess earnings will pass to beneficiaries, or to an ongoing trust for beneficiaries with no gift or estate tax.

Because the grantor takes back the amount equal to that which was transferred to the trust (often two or three years), which is set by the IRS when the trust is funded, future appreciation over and above the interest rate passes gift-tax free.

There’s little upkeep. Once the trust agreement is in place, a gift tax return needs to be filed once a year. If the trust is set up without a tax ID number, there’s no need to file an income tax return.

The grantor is responsible for the income generated by the asset in the GRAT, but that’s it. If the value of the property is increased following an audit, the gift won’t be increased but the annuity will. If the GRAT property decreases in value, the only out of pocket is the set-up costs.

Assets in a GRAT may be anything from an investment portfolio to shares in a closely held business.

Most GRATs are designed to have the value of the retained annuity be equal to the value of the property that is transferred to the GRAT. If the values are equal, then the amount of the gift for tax purposes is zero, since the value of the transfer less the annuity value is zero.

GRATs are not for everyone. The success of the GRAT depends upon the success of the underlying assets. If they don’t appreciate as expected, then there might not be a significant amount transferred out of the estate after paying for the legal, accounting and appraisal fees. If the grantor dies during the term of the GRAT before payments back to the grantor have ended, the GRAT will be unsuccessful.

Generation skipping transfers cannot utilize GRATS, since the generation skipping tax exemption may not be applied to a GRAT, until the grantor’s death.

Ask your estate planning attorney about whether a GRAT could benefit your family. If a GRAT is not a good fit, they will know about many other tools available.

Reference: Financial Advisor (Nov. 30, 2020) “Transferring Wealth With This Trust Can Yield Big Tax Advantages”

When Should Succession Plan Be Used?

“We currently have the highest estate tax exemption and the lowest intra-family interest rates in history. That combination alone is significant, but when mixed with the potential for lower estate and gift tax exemptions and depressed business valuations, you have a potent catalyst for transitioning ownership.”

Anyone with a taxable estate that includes an operating business should be looking into the efficacy of making gifts in 2020 to take advantage of a unique set of circumstances, advises the article “Why Now is the Right Time to Execute Succession Plans” from Worth.

The federal exemption from transfer taxes is at a historically high level. Individuals may transfer up to $11.58 million of assets during their lifetime without incurring federal gift, estate or generation skipping transfer tax (GST). The current maximum federal gift and estate tax rate and the current maximum federal GST tax rate is now 40 percent. As the law stands now, this amount is not scheduled to be reduced until the end of 2025, but whether that will remain is anyone’s guess.

The IRS has stated that it will not attempt a claw back of taxes if the exemption amount decreases soon, so taxpayers who put off taking action before December 31, 2020 will miss out.

Lower Value Another Incentive to Develop a Succession Plan

It is important not forget the impact of the global pandemic. Valuations in some parts of public markets continue to be high, but many private companies have lost a lot of value. The lower appraised values can be beneficial for succession planning. If a business owner is willing to transfer all or a portion of the private company to successive generations now, that lowered appraisal value means that more wealth can be shifted. There is the possibility of growth in the future, free of gift, estate, or GST tax.

How Do Interest Rates Impact Succession Plans?

Many strategies used to transfer assets between generations are based on interest rates which are near the lowest they have ever been. Every month, the IRS releases the updated Section 7520 and Applicable Federal Rates (AFR). These are the rates used for transfer techniques like GRATs and intra-family loans. In October, the 7520 rate was 40 basis points (“bps”), and the Mid-Term Annual AFR, used for loans with terms of three to nine years was 39 bps.

Succession Plans Take Time to Create

This unique combination of exemptions, low business valuations and low interest rates is likely to lead many business owners to their estate planning attorney’s offices to implement succession plans before the calendar years ends. The smart move is to contact your estate planning attorney, CPA, and financial advisor as soon as possible to discuss options, and get succession plans going. There will likely be a more-than-usual last minute rush to complete many financial and legal tasks this December, and getting started as early as possible will make it more likely that your succession plan can be completed before December 31, 2020.

Reference: Worth (Nov. 2, 2020) “Why Now is the Right Time to Execute Succession Plans”