Do Land Trusts Protect Assets? Privacy Is Not Protection. A land trust gives you privacy, probate avoidance, and transfer tax treatment. It does not give you creditor protection — and the LLC-beneficiary version has a trap.
Dynasty Trust Step-Up in Basis: Why Estate Inclusion Is the Whole Test. Rev. Rul. 2023-2 denied the step-up to irrevocable grantor trusts outside the estate. The test is estate inclusion — and what puts assets there is the absence of a completed gift.
Locked In or Optional: Evaluating Trust Proposals After the OBBBA. A paired-trust proposal forces four irrevocable decisions on day one. With the sunset gone, here's how to tell which ones your family actually needs to make now.
The OBBBA Didn't Fix the GST Portability Gap. The exemption is permanent at $30M for couples. But GST exemption is not portable, and it disappears at the first death. What that costs a $12M couple who waits.
You've read what a dynasty trust is. The harder question is whether you should have one. The objections your CPA and estate attorney will raise, answered.
Your client has a plan for what happens when they die. They may not have a plan for what happens when they get sued while they’re still alive — or what happens to the $89 million that gets extracted from their estate across the next two generations. This article is written for the insurance producer who already sits across from that client.
Massachusetts: 9% Surtax on Accumulation, 16% Estate Tax From $2M. De Prins confirmed self-settled trusts don't protect Massachusetts residents. The estate tax starts at $2M with no portability. The surtax hits on the way in.
Oregon Family Trust & Estate Tax: The $1M Exemption Problem. Oregon's estate tax exemption is $1 million — the lowest in the country. A $4M Portland estate already owes state tax. What a family trust does and doesn't solve.
Washington Estate Tax: $3M Exemption, 35% Top Rate, No Portability. Washington taxes estates above $3 million at rates now reaching 35%, with no spousal portability. The federal exemption is $15 million. That gap is the whole problem.
New York Estate Tax Cliff, EPTL §7-3.1, and Koehler Turnover. New York voids self-settled trusts outright, lets courts compel worldwide asset turnover, and has a cliff that can cost $1M on a single dollar of appreciation.