Estate planning is a lot like putting together a puzzle. The client provides you with their box lid showing what they want the ultimate result of their plan to look like. Then, estate planners are tasked to identify and gather the various pieces and put it all together. An important piece of any estate planning puzzle is tax planning. While the federal government rarely misses an opportunity to take a share for itself when monies are exchanged, two powerful tools are helpful when incorporating that tax piece into a client’s puzzle: (1) the federal estate tax exemption; and the (2) annual and lifetime gift tax exclusions.
