The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by President Trump on December 22, 2017, included provisions that doubled the estate tax exemption. The exemption for 2019 is $11.4 million for individuals and $22.8 million for married couples. According to the Tax Policy Center, less than 4,000 estates in the U.S. will have to file an estate tax return under the new laws, and of those only 1,800 (or fewer) will end up owing any money. Whether or not the federal estate tax is ultimately repealed is anybody’s guess at this point, but one thing is certain—all of us need an estate plan even if such a repeal comes to pass. That’s because minimizing estate taxes is not the sole purpose of estate planning, far from it. If a person passes away without a will or trust, his or her estate assets are distributed according to what is known as intestate
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