Advanced Estate Planning

When your fundamental estate planning is in place, often it makes sense to engage in advanced estate planning to reduce taxes, make charitable gifts, or protect family and business interests, among other objectives.  Advanced estate planning usually takes place after a revocable living trust is created.  The advanced planning may seek to diminish the size of your taxable estate, freeze the value of growth assets, or use advanced measures to pass assets to your children.  These advanced strategies take several forms.

•    Irrevocable trusts often aim to remove assets from your estate, and include the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT); Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust (IDGT); and Lifetime Qualified Terminal Interest Property Trust (Lifetime QTIP).

•    Charitable trusts aim to benefit both a charity and the donor by transferring assets with low-cost basis while avoiding capital gains taxes, and include the Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) and Charitable Lead Trust (CLT).

•    Split interest trusts often freeze the value of an asset to prevent the asset's future appreciation from ending up in one's taxable estate, and include the Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT); Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT); Grantor Retained Unitrust (GRUT) and Grantor Retained Income Trust (GRIT).

•    Other common estate planning strategies include the Retirement Plan Trust (RPT) to ensure your beneficiaries do not waste the advantages of tax-deferred growth on an inherited IRA; and Family Limited Liability Company (FLLC) and Family Limited Partnership (FLP) structures to protect business and family assets while engaging in inter-generational tax planning.