Higher Estate Tax Exemption Means You Could Save Income Taxes by Updating Your Estate Plan

Updating your estate plan can save taxes.
Updating your estate plan could save taxes.

The estate tax exemption doubled as a result of the Federal Tax Cut and Jobs Act, raising it to historic highs. The estate tax exemption had been scheduled to increase to $5.6 million per person in 2018, but it was modified by the recent legislation to reach the current level of $11.2 million per person, or $22.4 million per couple. The inflation-adjusted exemption for 2019 is $11.4 million per person, or $22.8 million per couple.

In the article “Updating estate plan could save heirs in taxes,” the Atlanta Business Chronicle asks why this matters to an individual or couple whose net worth is nowhere near these levels.

When the most that could be transferred to a non-spouse beneficiary was under a million dollars, everyone worried about the estate tax and used trusts to minimize its effect. Since the estate tax was so much higher than the capital gains tax, it was never considered a big deal if a beneficiary paid the capital gains tax on selling trust assets, because it was less costly than paying the estate tax.

In the past, a married couple’s estate plan would often call for the deceased spouse’s assets to be placed in a trust for the surviving spouse (often called a “bypass trust”). The goal was for the trust to provide for the surviving spouse until the surviving spouse’s death, at which point the trust assets bypassed the estate of the surviving spouse and went directly to the beneficiaries, usually the spouses’ children. If the beneficiaries sold trust assets after the surviving spouse’s death, they would pay the income tax based on the value of the assets at the first spouse’s death, as oppposed to the value of the assets at the surviving spouse’s death. The higher the assets appreciated between the time of the first spouse’s death and the second spouse’s death, the higher the income tax.

For example, if a spouse owned $10,000 worth of stock which passed to a bypass trust at his or her death, and the stock increased to $100,000 at the death of the surviving spouse, the heirs would pay capital gains taxes on the amount of the appreciation ($90,000) upon the sale of the stock. If, however, instead of being in a bypass trust, the stock were included the surviving spouse’s estate, when the beneficiaries sold the stock, they would not have to pay capital gains taxes on the $90,000 of appreciation that occurred between the first spouse’s death and the surviving spouse’s death. That could be a substantial tax savings.

For those who included bypass trusts in their estate plans just to save on estate taxes, updating their estate plan to eliminate the bypass trust could bring greater simplicity as well as tax savings for the heirs.

It should be noted that the law creating the present $11.4 million estate tax exemption ends at the end of 2025, when the estate tax exemption will return to $5 million (adjusted for inflation). Because the tax laws are constantly changing, it is always a good idea to revisit your estate plan at least every three years. Learn more about what married couples should consider when updating their estate plan at https://galligan-law.com/life-stages/planning-for-married-couples/

Reference: Atlanta Business Chronicle (May 31, 2019) “Updating estate plan could save heirs in taxes”

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Estate Planning Avoids Problems With Selling the Family Home

Estate planning can help avoid problems when selling the family home.
Estate planning can help avoid problems when selling the family home.

Family members who are overtaken with grief are often unable to move forward with selling the family home after a parent has passed away. If the family home was not being well maintained while the parent was ill or aging, it might fall into further disrepair. When siblings have emotional attachments to the family home, things can get even more complicated. The difficulty of selling a parent’s home after their passing, depends to a large degree on what kind of estate planning the parent has done.

Much also depends on the family’s ability to ask for help and work with the right professionals in handling the sale of the home and managing the estate. The earlier the process begins, the better.

Parents can take steps while they are still living to ward off unnecessary complications. It may be a difficult conversation but having it will make the process easier and allow the family time to focus on their emotions, rather than the sale of property. This is why is is important to address what happens to the family home in an estate plan.

Here are a few pointers:

Make sure your parents have a will or a living trust. Many Americans do not. A survey from Caring.com found that only 42% of American adults had a will or a trust, and other estate planning documents.

After a parent passes away, there may be costs associated with maintaining the property and fixing any overdue repairs. Make sure to save all receipts and estimates.

Also, the Executor or successor Trustee under the parent’s estate planning documents should secure the property immediately. That may mean having the locks changed as soon as possible. Once an heir (or someone who believes they are or should be an heir) moves in, getting them out adds another layer of complication.

Be realistic about the value of the property. Have a real estate agent run a competitive market analysis on the property and consider an appraisal from a licensed appraisal. Avoid any accusations of impropriety—don’t hire a friend or family member. This needs to be all business.

To keep disagreements to a minimum, the Executor or successor Trustee should frequently update the heirs on how the sale of the house is progressing.

The biggest roadblock to selling the family house is often the emotional attachment of the children. It’s hard to clean out a family home, with all of the mementos, large and small. The longer the process takes, the harder it is.

This is not the time for any major renovations. There may be some cosmetic repairs that will make the house more marketable, but substantial improvements won’t impact the sale price. Remove all family belongings and show the house either empty or with professional staging to show its possibilities. Clean carpets, paint, if needed and have the landscaping cleaned up.

Keep tax consequences in mind. Depending on where the property is, where the heirs live and how much money is being inherited, there can be estate, inheritance and income taxes.  It is usually better to sell an inherited property as quickly as possible. When a property is inherited at death, the property value is “stepped up” to fair market value at the time of the owner’s death. That means that you can sell a property that was purchased many years ago, but not pay taxes on the value gained over those years.

Talk with an experienced estate planning attorney about what will happen when the home needs to be sold. It may be better for parents to create a revocable trust in advance, which will direct the sale, allow a child to continue living in the home for a certain period of time, or instruct the one child who loves the home so much to buy it from the trust. Trusts are typically easier to administer after parents pass away and can be very helpful in preventing family fights.

Dealing with issues in advance through estate planning will help minimize conflicts after a parent passes away. Learn more avoiding estate planning mistakes.

Reference: The Washington Post (May 16, 2019) “With proper planning, selling a parent’s house can be a relatively painless process”

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When You Need an Elder Law Attorney

An elder law attorney can guide you through the issues that affect us as we age.
An elder law attorney can guide you through the issues that affect us as we age.

The conversation that you have with an estate planning attorney, when you are in your thirties with a new house, young children, and many years ahead of you is different from the one you’ll have when you are much older. That’s the time to consult an elder law attorney. When you are older, you face a whole new set of issues, including rising health costs and the possibility of needing long term care. An elder law attorney knows that you are about to enter a time in your life when your estate planning documents are more likely to be used, says the article “Learn about legal documents and Medicaid” from the Houston Chronicle.

As we get older, the need to address long term care becomes more important. Elder law attorneys warn that there are many options that may be foreclosed if planning is not done ahead of the time. This is the time to talk to an elder law attorney to create a road map that anticipates the care you may require as you get older and how to pay for it. Making the right decisions now, could have a big impact on the quality of your life in the future.

This is also the time to update your financial and medical powers of attorney. Because of your experiences, there may be certain preferences you have for health care treatment. In addition, your elder law attorney may advise you to include a broad gifting power in your financial power of attorney which may be necessary to help you qualify for government assistance.

You should also review your other estate planning documents to make sure that they still reflect how you wish your estate to pass at your death. Your elder law attorney may suggest adding provisions to protect a surviving spouse’s eligibility for Medicaid or other government assistance in case it is needed.

It may be that your estate plan will include trusts, or that certain assets will need to be retitled. An elder law attorney can guide you through this stage of your life to make sure that you are prepared for what the future holds.

Learn more about elder law and medicaid at our website.

Reference: The Houston Chronicle (April 19, 2019) “Learn about legal documents and Medicaid”

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