Post-Election Estate Tax Planning – What Now?

If you are like many people, you put off finalizing estate tax planning until the results of the 2024 election were in. Some people held off on any gifting to make a final decision. Others set up trusts and gifted smaller amounts to them as a placeholder. Now that the White House and both houses of Congress are comfortably red, what comes next?

The 2017 Tax Cuts & Job Acts and the current $13.61 million federal estate tax exemption expire on December 31, 2025. While Republicans have expressed their intention to extend the 2017 tax law within the first 100 days of the new administration, the specifics of this extension remain uncertain. This uncertainty calls for a cautious approach to estate tax planning.