Tag: Client Education

Trump Accounts: What Financial Advisors Need to Know Now

Trump Accounts stopped being a hypothetical on July 4, 2026. One year after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, created them, families can now open accounts, claim the $1,000 federal seed contribution, and start making contributions. Advisors are already fielding two questions: “Should my client open one?” and “How does this fit into the estate plan?”

The first question is easy for eligible newborns or for others who may be eligible for philanthropic gifts: the contribution is free money, and there is no reason to leave it unclaimed. The second question is where advisors can immediately add value to their clients. A Trump Account is a traditional IRA wearing a new label, and that single fact drives almost every estate and tax planning consequence that follows.

What is a Trump Account?

A Trump Account is a tax-advantaged investment account for children under age 18 who have a Social Security number. Under IRS guidance, it is a traditional IRA established for the child and designated as a Trump Account at the time it is opened. The child is both the beneficiary and the legal owner. Only one funded Trump Account is allowed per child.

The account was created by the OBBBA, signed into law on July 4, 2025, and accounts became available on July 4, 2026. Families start the process by filing an election with the IRS, either through Form 4547 or the online tool at
trumpaccounts.gov.

Here is how Trump Accounts compare with the accounts advisors already use for minors:

FeatureTrump Account529 PlanUTMA/UGMACustodial Roth IRA
Earned income requiredNoNoNoYes
Annual contribution limit$5,000 from all sources, indexed after 2027Gift tax annual exclusion as a practical limit; five-year superfunding availableNone, although gift tax rules applyLesser of earned income or the annual IRA limit
Federal seed money$1,000 for eligible newborns born from 2025 through 2028NoNoNo
Tax on growthTax-deferred; ordinary income tax applies upon withdrawalTax-free for qualified education expensesTaxable annually under kiddie tax rulesTax-free if qualified
Investment menuU.S. equity index funds and ETFs only, with expense ratios of 0.10% or lessOptions available within the plan menuUnrestrictedUnrestricted
Withdrawals before age 18Generally prohibitedAvailable at any time; taxes and penalties may apply to nonqualified earningsPermitted for the benefit of the minorContributions may be withdrawn at any time
Removes assets from contributor’s estateYes, as a completed giftYes, with a five-year election availableYesYes
Eligible for annual exclusionYes, if safe-harbor requirements are metYesYesYes

How do Trump Account contributions work?

The total that can be contributed to a Trump Account is $5,000 per child per year, combined across most sources, with the cap indexed for inflation after 2027. During the growth period, which ends on December 31 of the year before the beneficiary turns 18, contributions can be made without regard to the child’s earned income. Beginning January 1 of the calendar year in which the beneficiary turns 18, most special Trump Account rules fall away and the account is generally governed by traditional IRA rules.

The sources differ in ways that matter later:

  • Federal seed, or pilot program.
    A one-time $1,000 contribution for U.S. citizen children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, claimed through the IRS election. It does not count toward the annual cap, and it will be taxable when withdrawn.
  • Individual contributions.
    Anyone can contribute, including parents, grandparents, and family friends. There is no earned income requirement for the child. These contributions are after-tax and nondeductible, which means they create basis that comes out tax-free later.
  • Employer contributions.
    An employer may contribute up to $2,500 per year per employee, indexed for inflation, splittable among an employee’s children. These are excluded from the employee’s income, are pre-tax, and count toward the $5,000 cap. Employees may also redirect pay pre-tax through a salary reduction arrangement.
  • Qualified general contributions.
    Eligible governmental entities and Section 501(c)(3) organizations may fund contributions for a defined qualified class of beneficiaries through the Treasury-administered framework. These contributions are not subject to the ordinary $5,000 annual limit and generally do not create basis.

Notice the pattern: every dollar entering the account carries a tax character that determines its treatment decades from now. That is the recordkeeping burden discussed below.

How are Trump Accounts taxed?

Growth is tax-deferred. Investments are generally limited to mutual funds or ETFs tracking qualifying broad indexes composed primarily of U.S. equities, without leverage and with annual fees and expenses of no more than 0.10%.

Withdrawals are generally prohibited before age 18. Starting January 1 of the year the beneficiary turns 18, traditional IRA rules apply. Pre-tax amounts, including the federal seed, employer contributions, and charitable contributions, and all earnings are taxed as ordinary income. Withdrawals before age 59½ typically face a 10% penalty unless an exception applies, such as certain education expenses, a first-time home purchase of up to $10,000, birth or adoption costs, disability, or qualifying medical expenses. Required minimum distribution rules apply as well. After-tax individual contributions come out tax-free.

Three consequences deserve more attention than they are getting:

The deferral trade-off.
Trump Accounts convert what would have been long-term capital gains in a taxable account into ordinary income. For a high-bracket family choosing between a Trump Account and a plain taxable brokerage account invested in the same index fund, deferral is not automatically a win. The taxable account gets a step-up in basis at death and preferential capital gains rates; the Trump Account gets neither. The account’s advantages concentrate in the free federal seed, the pre-tax employer dollars, and decades of compounding without tax drag.

The kiddie tax.
Withdrawals of pre-tax amounts count as unearned income to the child. A withdrawal at 18 or 19, while the beneficiary is still subject to the kiddie tax, can be taxed at the parents’ marginal rate rather than the child’s. Timing withdrawals with an eye to the kiddie tax exposure is an important financial planning consideration.

The basis-tracking problem.
Because after-tax contributions create basis while government, employer, and charitable contributions do not, accurate records of every contribution source must survive from the child’s birth to a withdrawal that may happen 40 years later. One helpful quirk is that Trump Accounts are not aggregated with the owner’s other IRAs when calculating the taxable portion of a withdrawal, so the usual pro-rata aggregation rule does not contaminate the analysis. But the burden of proving basis still lands on the account owner, and by extension on the advisor who wants the client’s Form 1099-R to be right.

Estate planning considerations for Trump Accounts

This is where most coverage stops and where the real questions start.

Contributions are completed gifts, but the cap does the limiting

A contribution to a child’s Trump Account is a gift to the child. Unlike gifts to 529 plans or UTMA accounts, the gift is not automatically a gift of a present interest, meaning that it does not qualify for the annual gift tax exclusion and contributions may be subject to gift taxes. In Revenue Procedure 2026-25, the IRS provided that under certain circumstances, a gift to a Trump Account would constitute a gift of a present interest.

This safe harbor is met when the taxpayer is an individual, the only taxable gifts made by the taxpayer during the calendar year are cash contributions to one or more Trump Accounts, the taxpayer’s total gifts during the calendar year to each individual who is an account beneficiary do not exceed the annual exclusion amount, the contributions do not generate gift or GST tax liability, and the taxpayer is not otherwise required to file a gift tax return.

Even if the safe-harbor provisions have been met, the annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient in 2026, so the $5,000 account cap, not the gift tax, is the binding constraint. An individual who wants to move meaningful wealth out of their estate will exhaust a Trump Account’s capacity almost immediately. For estate reduction at scale, the Trump Account is a rounding error next to annual exclusion gifting programs, 529 superfunding, or lifetime exemption gifts under the new $15 million exemption, or $30 million for married couples, that took effect January 1, 2026.

The account belongs to the child from day one

Unlike a 529, where the account owner retains control and can change beneficiaries, a Trump Account is owned by the child. The contributor gives up control permanently. That is a feature for estate inclusion purposes because the asset is out of the contributor’s estate, and a drawback for families who value flexibility. There is no mechanism to redirect the money to a sibling, claw it back, or gate it behind trust terms.

If the beneficiary dies, the account is in the child’s estate

Because the child owns the account, the balance is includible in the child’s gross estate at death and passes under the beneficiary designation or, absent one, under state law and the custodial agreement. IRS guidance on beneficiary designations for minors’ accounts is still developing. Advisors should flag this as an open item and revisit it as guidance lands.

After 18, every traditional IRA planning issue applies

Once the beneficiary reaches adulthood, the family has options: keep the account as a Trump Account under general IRA rules, roll it to a traditional IRA or eligible workplace plan, or potentially execute a Roth conversion, on which further IRS guidance is expected. A conversion in the beneficiary’s low-income years, such as ages 18 to 25 before peak earnings, may be the single most valuable planning move available, turning deferred ordinary income into tax-free growth at the lowest rates the beneficiary may ever see.

When the account owner eventually dies with a balance, the SECURE Act’s post-death distribution rules apply, meaning most non-spouse heirs must empty the inherited account within 10 years. Beneficiary designations, trust-as-beneficiary drafting, and distribution timing all become live issues, exactly as they are for any traditional IRA. An asset created at a child’s birth in 2026 could still be generating estate planning work in 2096.

Children with disabilities: the ABLE rollover

A beneficiary with a qualifying disability may roll Trump Account funds into an ABLE account at age 17. For families with special needs planning in place, this rollover should be coordinated with the existing special needs trust structure before the window opens.

Keeping the whole picture coherent

A Trump Account is one more asset that has to fit inside a family’s larger plan: wills, revocable trusts, beneficiary designations, 529s, custodial accounts, and insurance. The failure mode is predictable. Assets accumulate across accounts with inconsistent beneficiary designations, and no one notices until a death forces the issue. This is precisely the visibility problem Wealth.com’s platform is built to solve. Advisors can see every account, designation, and document in one place and catch the inconsistencies while they are still inexpensive to fix.

Considerations for business-owner clients

Business-owner clients should evaluate whether a Section 128 Trump Account contribution program belongs in their benefits strategy. Under Section 128, an employer may contribute up to $2,500 per employee per year, indexed after 2027, to the Trump Account of the employee or the employee’s dependent, provided the contribution is made under a separate written Trump Account contribution program. The exclusion is per employee, not per child, and the contribution counts toward the beneficiary’s $5,000 annual non-exempt contribution limit.

Employers may also allow pre-tax salary reduction contributions through a Section 125 cafeteria plan, but only for contributions to a dependent’s Trump Account, not the employee’s own account. Contributions are excluded from the employee’s gross income and are generally expected to be deductible by the employer if otherwise deductible as compensation or employee benefit expense. Advisors should coordinate with payroll and benefits counsel because current guidance does not clearly exclude these amounts from FICA or FUTA wages.

Trump Account vs. 529 plan: which should clients fund first?

For most families, the order of operations looks like this:

  1. Claim the federal seed.
    If the child was born between 2025 and 2028, file the election. This costs nothing.
  2. Capture employer dollars.
    If the client’s employer offers Trump Account contributions, that is pre-tax compensation the client otherwise forfeits.
  3. Then prioritize by goal.
    Education savings still favor the 529. Tax-free qualified withdrawals beat tax-deferred ordinary income, and superfunding, which allows five years of annual exclusion gifts at once, makes the 529 the stronger estate-reduction tool. A custodial Roth IRA beats both for children with earned income. The Trump Account’s niche is general-purpose, no-earned-income-required investing for a child, with free government and employer money attached.

The honest summary for clients is to take the free money, use the employer channel if it exists, and review the alternatives before directing discretionary after-tax dollars here instead of a 529 or Roth.

Action items for advisors in 2026

  • Screen the client base for children and grandchildren born January 1, 2025, or later. Every eligible child without an election on file is leaving $1,000 unclaimed.
  • Talk to business-owner clients about the employer contribution as a benefits and retention play: up to $2,500 per employee per year, excluded from employee income.
  • Set up basis records now for any account receiving after-tax contributions. Do not wait for the custodian’s reporting to mature.
  • Add Trump Accounts to the estate plan review checklist, including beneficiary designation status, coordination with trusts, and the ABLE rollover window for special needs families.
  • Watch for IRS guidance on Roth conversions, rollovers to outside custodians, and beneficiary designation mechanics. Several important details remain unsettled.

Frequently asked questions

Are Trump Account contributions tax deductible?

No. Individual contributions are made after-tax and are not deductible. They create basis that is withdrawn tax-free later. Employer contributions are pre-tax and excluded from the employee’s income.

Who is eligible for the $1,000 government contribution?

U.S. citizen children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, with a Social Security number. Families claim it by filing an election with the IRS through Form 4547 or at
trumpaccounts.gov.

Can grandparents contribute to a Trump Account?

Yes. Grandparents and other individuals may contribute, subject to the account’s combined $5,000 annual limit. These contributions are gifts to the child. Under Revenue Procedure 2026-25, certain cash contributions may qualify for a safe harbor that treats them as present-interest gifts eligible for the annual exclusion, provided all applicable conditions are satisfied.

What happens to a Trump Account when the child turns 18?

Starting January 1 of the year the beneficiary turns 18, withdrawals are permitted and traditional IRA rules apply. The account can remain a Trump Account, be rolled to a traditional IRA or eligible retirement plan, or potentially be converted to a Roth IRA, pending further IRS guidance.

Is a Trump Account better than a 529 plan?

They serve different goals. For education, a 529’s tax-free qualified withdrawals and superfunding option usually win. The Trump Account’s advantages are the federal seed, employer contributions, and availability without earned income. Most families should claim the free money in a Trump Account and direct additional education savings to a 529.

What happens to a Trump Account if the beneficiary dies?

The account is the child’s asset and is includible in the child’s estate. After age 18, standard inherited IRA rules, including the SECURE Act’s 10-year rule for most beneficiaries, govern what heirs must do with the account.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal or tax advice. Several aspects of Trump Accounts remain subject to further IRS guidance; details described here reflect guidance available as of July 2026.

Famous People Who Died Without a Will (and What It Cost Their Families)

Prince had lawyers. Howard Hughes had an empire’s worth of them. Abraham Lincoln was one. None of them left a will, and their families paid for it through years of litigation, eight-figure legal bills, and headlines nobody would want as a legacy.

These stories make great trivia, but for financial advisors, they are something more useful: proof, in vivid detail, of what happens when planning gets postponed.

Only 24% of American adults have a will, according to Caring.com’s 2025 survey, even as Cerulli projects $124 trillion changing hands through 2048. That gap runs straight through most advisors’ books.

Here are six famous cautionary tales worth keeping in your back pocket for the next client who says they will get to it eventually.

24%

of American adults have a will

$124T

projected to change hands through 2048

6

cautionary tales advisors can share with clients

Estate planning terminology

What does it mean to die intestate?

Dying intestate means dying without a valid will. When that happens, state intestacy laws, rather than the deceased’s wishes, determine who inherits. A probate court oversees the process, and the estate often pays more in taxes, fees, and time than it ever would have spent on a plan.

Prince: a six-year, $156 million question mark

When Prince died in 2016, his sister told a Minnesota probate court that no will could be found. What followed was close to a worst-case scenario.

Roughly 700 people came forward claiming to be heirs. The bank appointed to manage the estate drilled open his vault, and the IRS spent years fighting the estate over its value. The administrator said $82.3 million. The IRS said $163.2 million.

The parties eventually settled at $156.4 million. The estate was not resolved until 2022, six years after Prince’s death, with tens of millions consumed by legal and administrative fees along the way.

Advisor takeaway

Extraordinary wealth cannot compensate for absent instructions. Without a valid plan, even the most sophisticated estate can become a years-long public dispute.

Aretha Franklin: a will in the couch cushions

Aretha Franklin’s family believed she died intestate in 2018. Then, months into probate, relatives found handwritten documents in her home: two in a locked cabinet and one in a spiral notebook under the couch cushions.

Her sons spent years in court arguing over which version controlled. In 2023, a Michigan jury finally ruled that the couch notebook was her valid will.

An estate once estimated at $80 million spent five years in litigation that a properly executed document could have prevented, while the IRS pursued nearly $8 million in back taxes.

Advisor takeaway

Having written wishes is not the same as having a clear, properly executed estate plan. Documents must be valid, current, accessible, and consistent with the client’s intentions.

Pablo Picasso: 45,000 artworks and no instructions

Picasso died in 1973, leaving one of the most valuable estates in history, an inventory of roughly 45,000 works, and no will.

Settling the estate reportedly took six years and $30 million while French courts sorted through claims involving his widow, children, and grandchildren.

France ultimately accepted artwork in lieu of estate taxes, which is how the Musée Picasso in Paris came to exist. It was a beautiful outcome for the public, but a brutal one for a family that spent the better part of a decade navigating the estate.

Advisor takeaway

The more complex the assets, the more important the instructions. Illiquid assets, intellectual property, collectibles, and family ownership structures require deliberate planning.

Howard Hughes: 34 years to close the books

After Howard Hughes died in 1976, some 40 purported wills surfaced. They included the infamous “Mormon Will,” which a Nevada court ruled was a forgery before declaring that Hughes had died intestate.

His roughly $2.5 billion estate was first distributed to 22 cousins in 1983, but the final assets were not paid out until 2010, ultimately reaching roughly a thousand heirs and descendants.

It took 34 years to finish administering the estate of a man who could have settled the central question with one valid, signed document.

Advisor takeaway

Uncertainty invites claims. A clear, authenticated estate plan can reduce the opportunity for fraud, competing documents, and avoidable family conflict.

Chadwick Boseman: not just a problem for the ultra-wealthy

Chadwick Boseman’s story lands differently because the numbers are more relatable. He died in 2020 at age 43 without a will, and his wife had to petition the court to administer his probate estate.

Filings showed about $3.88 million in assets, reduced to roughly $2.3 million after taxes, debts, and fees. The remaining estate was split between his widow and his parents under California intestacy law.

Nearly 40% of the probate estate went to costs. For clients who think estate planning is only for people in Prince’s tax bracket, this is the example that can change minds.

Advisor takeaway

Estate planning is not reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Younger clients and families with more familiar levels of wealth can still face significant costs, delays, and loss of control.

Sonny Bono: no plan, even in Congress

Sonny Bono was a sitting U.S. congressman when he died in a 1998 skiing accident, and he left no will.

His widow had to petition to administer the estate, while Cher filed a claim for unpaid alimony. A man claiming to be Bono’s secret son also pursued a share before withdrawing after the court ordered DNA testing.

Even comparatively modest estates can attract complications when there is no valid document to establish the decedent’s wishes.

Advisor takeaway

Complexity is not determined by estate size alone. Former relationships, disputed heirs, blended families, and unclear wishes can complicate estates at nearly any level of wealth.

The advisor’s takeaway: the famous failures are the easy conversation

Every one of these people had access to some of the best legal advice money could buy. What they lacked was not resources. It was urgency, and someone positioned to create it.

That is the advisor’s seat.

You already know which clients have no documents, outdated documents, or a trust that was never funded. The hard part has always been turning that knowledge into completed plans without sending every client into a weeks-long attorney engagement they may quietly abandon.

The biggest estate planning risk is not always complexity. Often, it is delay.

Financial advisors are uniquely positioned to prevent that delay, but only when estate planning becomes part of the client experience rather than a referral they hope gets followed.

This is the gap Wealth.com was built to close.

Advisors use the platform to empower clients to create attorney-grade wills, revocable trusts, powers of attorney, and health care directives, visualize how assets will actually flow, and use Ester® to surface what existing documents really say.

Estate planning becomes a service advisors can deliver, not a referral they hope gets followed.

Your clients can still write a different ending.

Plenty of clients are currently on track for the same outcome at a smaller scale: state law deciding who inherits, probate determining how long it takes, and fees reducing how much remains.

See how Wealth.com helps advisors turn estate planning from a postponed conversation into a completed plan.

Book a personalized demo

How to Get Estate Planning Documents Notarized

So you’ve created, or updated, your estate planning documents. Congratulations! You’re at the final stretch but there’s one more important step you may need to take: Your documents need to be signed and notarized.

Getting your documents notarized serves a few purposes but the most important one is that without getting notarized, they may not be considered legally valid. That could open your estate up to potential probate proceedings or other court challenges.

We recommend following this process:

  1. After drafting your estate plan in Wealth.com, select Mobile Notary from the Validation Services menu. If you own property and are interested in funding your trust, we also offer this option within the Validation Services menu.
  2. Submit a mobile notary order and our preferred provider, Sign Here Ink, will contact you to coordinate a time and location that’s convenient to you. If you need witnesses, they can help with that too!
  3. Your notary will scan your validated documents and upload them into your wealth.com Vault for security and accessibility.

Below we’ll detail more about the process, our recommendations and answers to common questions.

What does it mean to get estate planning documents notarized?

Getting a document notarized is when a notary public certifies the authenticity of signatures on a document. Typically, the process involves:

  • Identity verification. The notary verifies that the person signing is who they claim to be. They typically ask for identification in the form of a driver’s license or passport.
  • Witnessing the signature. A notary also needs to witness first-hand the person signing the documents willingly and not under coercion. Some states may require additional witnesses.
  • Notarial seal and signature. After the notary confirms the above, they include their signature and their official or stamp confirming that the document is now legally valid and credible.

Why is a notary needed?

The primary reason for getting documents notarized is for your protection. First, to ensure that documents aren’t fraudulently signed in your name. For example, somebody signing a will in your name that you did not actually sign—like something out of a movie plot.

Second, to ensure that the documents are recognized by the legal system if, and when, they need to be executed. The last thing you want to happen with your estate plan is for there to be unnecessary legal action because the validity of the documents you signed is questioned. By getting documents notarized, when they need to be executed there is confirmation that you have willingly signed them and they can be legally executed because you followed your state’s regulations for getting them notarized.

How can I get my documents notarized?

Requirements for how to get documents notarized vary by state. Each state has its own laws and regulations governing how notarization works. Differences between states may include identification requirements you can use or if you need additional witnesses as well as training requirements for notaries themselves.

If you need to notarize your documents, you can actually order a mobile notary directly within Wealth.com. We offer a nationwide network across all 50 states of trust-certified notaries who can meet you at a preferred date, time, and location. Your advisor doesn’t need to coordinate this appointment, since our mobile notary preferred provider, Sign Here Ink, manages all orders and scheduling. Our mobile notaries also bring printed copies of your documents to the appointment, so there’s no need to print them yourselves. Once the appointment concludes, the notary will leave the original documents with you to keep and scan a digital version for your advisor same-day to download. It’s that simple! If you’re a Wealth.com user, you can learn more about how to request a mobile notary your Help Center or by asking our AI assistant. 

You can also find a notary at a local UPS or FedEx location. Banks also often have notaries on staff, although you may need to be a customer to use them. You can also search online for local notaries near your home. Note that these options might not have trust-certified notaries who are experts in estate planning documents, which is why we recommend using our mobile notary service.

If your advisor already has an in-house notary, you can also choose the Print & Ship option in your Validation Services menu where printed copies get sent to your address and details for getting them notarized in your state will be included.

Are online notary services also available?

Online notary services are legal to use in some states but you should use caution if you choose to use one. That’s because while they can legally operate in some states, there still may be legal requirements that could conflict or create confusion with the use of an online notary.

For example, New Jersey allows remote ink-signed notarization but doesn’t recognize remote online notarization—the difference being the need for a wet signature. However, that ability to get it remotely can easily cause confusion.

Furthermore, some online notary services may not accurately follow state-specific instructions if they operate in multiple states, opening you up to potential issues in the future.

Legislation in a number of states is likely to continue to be updated, with the hope that remote online notarization becomes a simpler process. We are actively monitoring legislation across the country and will notify you—via instructions when it’s time to sign your documents—if remote online notarization is allowed in your state.

Until then, we do recommend an in-person notary as the best way to ensure that you minimize any potential legal issues if, and when, your documents are executed in the future.

Can I get my documents notarized in another state?

It’s recommended that you follow your state regulations and also discuss with your notary. Technically, a notary can legally notarize documents from any state as long as the notarial act occurs in the state in which they were commissioned because notaries are typically only verifying the signer’s identity and not the document itself.

However, best practice would be to confirm with the notary that they don’t believe this would be an issue. We also recommend extreme caution in this instance that the document is being notarized according to the instructions of the state they were produced in.

What if someone named in my estate plan is also a notary?

It’s not usually recommended that any interested party notarize or witness any estate planning documents.

Certain states will strike the nomination as executor or gift to a beneficiary if a witness is the individual named as either. Even without a specific statutory prohibition in a given state, it opens the door for all kinds of litigation arguments around undue influence and capacity in execution

The 5 Tax Planning Mistakes Costing Your Clients Real Money, and How to Prevent Them

Tax planning has always demanded precision, but new changes have raised the stakes considerably. Recent changes related to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), evolving SALT and charitable giving rules, and increasingly mobile clients have narrowed the margin for tax planning mistakes..

The most common errors are not always technical oversights. More often, they are structural and operational: the wrong workflow, the wrong assumptions, or the absence of a process that keeps every stakeholder aligned. 

This guide examines five of the most significant tax planning mistakes advisory firms encounter today, and the role that technology plays in preventing them.

Mistake 1: Working in silos

Many high-net-worth clients have a full professional team that includes their financial advisor, estate planning attorney, CPA, and often a business attorney or even commercial banker. On paper, that team looks comprehensive. In practice, however, those professionals often operate in separate lanes, even if they sometimes work together in the same firm.

When an advisory team lacks coordination, documents live in different systems, emails live only in separate inboxes, and an advisor may update a plan or fund an account without realizing how it can impact tax exposure downstream.

The impact of poor communication can be significant. When an accountant gets surprised by newly funded accounts with capital gains they didn’t know about, or an estate document does not reflect a client’s latest tax realities, missed planning opportunities accumulate quickly. 

How to Fix This Mistake

Create an internal operational structure that supports regular meetings and conversations to keep everyone aligned across an advisory team. Whether your firm offers end-to-end services with investments, tax, and estate under one roof, or you partner with outside professionals to deliver some of these services, there’s no substitute for well-organized coordination.

Wealth.com is purpose built to function as a coordination layer for the entire advisory team.

With Wealth.com Tax Planning, advisors can model forward-looking tax scenarios, incorporate estate considerations, and align decisions across stakeholders within a single system. Tax projections, planning outputs, and supporting documents live together, giving every professional involved a clear, shared view of the client’s strategy.

With Wealth.com Estate Planning, those insights don’t stop at analysis. Advisors can translate strategy into action by empowering clients to generate documents, visualize plan structures, and ensure that every recommendation is accurately reflected in the client’s estate plan.

Rather than relying on scattered communication methods, your team works from a shared digital environment where key documents live, meeting notes can be shared, and tax scenario outputs can sit right next to a client’s broader estate plan.

By centralizing information and collaboration, your team can make it possible to effectively use strategies like life insurance or trusts to ensure cash liquidity for estate taxes. With the right amount of communication coordination, you can reduce the risk that a critical fact is missed when a tax sensitive recommendation is made.

 

Mistake 2: No centralized document storage

Even when the right professionals are present and a communication plan is in place, the absence of a centralized, secure way to share documents is one of the most overlooked tax planning mistakes made in advisory practices.

Without a secure digital vault accessible by all parties, well-organized communication plans and inter-team organization quickly deteriorate. 

Sensitive documents shared through email can lead to major compliance and regulatory issues, but having an assortment of options for secure sharing (including every advisor or team using their own preferred attachment system) only creates confusion.

How to Fix This Mistake

Deploy a secure document vault that everyone on your team, outside professionals like an estate attorney, and clients can comfortably use. 

Wealth.com’s Vault ensures that all relevant parties have access to the same necessary information. This April, when the all-new Tax Planning launches, your Vault will also gain enhanced modeling capabilities and improve the way you involve stakeholders in conversations with role-based permissions and bank-level encryption.

A structured, technology-supported process makes it harder for important details to fall through the cracks and easier to demonstrate that your firm is acting in the best interests of your clients first and foremost.

 

Mistake 3: Liquidity blind spots for closely held business owners

Entrepreneurs and closely held business owners are often estate-rich and cash-poor. Their wealth is tied up in operating businesses, real estate, or other illiquid assets. On paper, the plan looks strong, but when estate tax or buyout obligations come due, available cash can tell a different story.

Without clear modeling, advisors risk underestimating how much liquidity a client may need, when it will be needed, and which assets will be called on to provide it. At other times, tax considerations threaten to overshadow a client’s broader objectives, producing a technically sound plan that fails the real life test.

How to Fix This Mistake

Make the liquidity gaps visible for your clients before they can become a crisis. 

When you operate as a proactive planner, you reposition your value from last-minute problem solver to a data-backed guide who helps a client fund their obligations and support their goals. 

Within Wealth.com’s Family Office Suite, you can project estate tax liability with potential OBBBA-driven changes, compare funding options available, and use automated tax analysis and projections to show business owner clients how decisions today can impact their future liquidity. 

 

Mistake 4: Letting tax rules drive the plan

When major legislation like the OBBBA passes, it is natural to focus on exemptions, deductions, and technical structures. And when deadlines approach, it’s natural for conversations to drift toward tactical decisions like which exemption to take advantage of which deduction to maximize before it’s too late. In the short term, that focus can be appropriate.

But the risk, for both clients and advisors, is that too much short-term focus inevitably creates strategy drift from what a client wants over the long term. Taken too far, families can end up with technically correct structures that are misaligned with their day to day reality, governance preferences, or legacy objectives.

How to Fix This Mistake

Treat tax scenarios as a powerful way to inform planning conversations, but don’t allow them to become the primary destination where all meetings land. Technology and a repeatable, guided meeting structure can help you to make sure clients avoid one of the most serious tax planning mistakes: designing a plan around the tax code instead of their goals.

Wealth.com’s Scenario Builder is designed for exactly this purpose: modeling tax implications, comparing strategies side by side, and showing clients how different decisions affect wealth transfer outcomes and estate distributions, so tax planning informs the plan without overriding it.

 

Mistake 5: Relying on outdated playbooks

A rising SALT cap, limitations on the benefits of charitable deductions for high income earners, and shifting tax brackets and deductions mean that there’s a lot for advisors to keep up on right now. 

At the same time, more clients are taking advantage of remote-first employers to move between states or spend time in multiple jurisdictions. That introduces state income tax, estate tax, and domicile considerations that a standard planning approach may not capture.

If you don’t update your tax assumptions, you run the risk of recommending strategies that no longer hold true, treating mobile clients the same as those who have a simpler residence profile, and missing out on deductions that could produce a meaningful difference for a client’s long-term wealth. 

How to Fix This Mistake

Investing in ongoing education from trusted industry resources, and build a planning culture built on ongoing plan adjustments, rather than one-time fixes. 

With Wealth.com, you can model scenarios based on new tax laws, document and attach your chosen strategies to every client, and model the tax impact of a client moving to a new state (before they make the decision)

This approach supports compliance-focused tax planning that stays current with changing rules and client behavior rather than relying on static spreadsheets or memory.

Building a modern tax review process

Firms that move from reactive correction to proactive management formalize a technology-supported tax review process that can be applied consistently across the book of business.

A modern checklist for compliance-focused tax planning often includes:

  • Reviewing projected estate tax exposure and related liquidity needs under current exemption levels
  • Reassessing charitable strategies in light of OBBBA-driven changes
  • Revisiting SALT planning, including trust structures where they remain relevant
  • Screening for Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) and Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) fund opportunities
  • Using automated tax analysis and scenario modeling to generate accurate tax projections and document recommendations
  • Confirming any anticipated moves, now or in the future, along with the client’s current residency status, including the state-specific tax implications of each scenario

When your process lives inside a single, secure platform, your work becomes repeatable, documented, and easy to prove. This is how firms demonstrate proactive planning to both clients and regulators, and build a process that makes common tax errors harder to miss.

Navigating the New Era of Charitable Planning: Strategic Insights Post-OBBBA

The charitable planning landscape is undergoing a significant transformation with the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Signed into law on July 4, 2025, with most provisions taking effect on January 1, 2026, this legislation fundamentally reshapes how donors and advisors must approach philanthropic goals.

The “Double Whammy” for High Earners

For high-income donors, the OBBBA introduces two primary hurdles that reduce the immediate tax benefits of charitable giving:

  • The 0.5% AGI Floor: No deduction is allowed for the first 0.5% of a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income (AGI). For example, a donor with a $1 million AGI must contribute more than $5,000 before any charitable deduction benefit begins.
  • The 35% Benefit Cap: The maximum tax benefit for itemized deductions is now capped at 35% for taxpayers in the top 37% marginal tax bracket. This effectively creates a 2/37ths “haircut” on the value of charitable deductions.

Updated Estate and Gift Tax Exemptions

The new law provides permanent fixtures that replace the uncertainty of previous tax sunsets. The base exemption amounts, which are indexed for inflation, have been increased:

  • Individuals: $15 million per person.
  • Married Couples: $30 million for married couples filing jointly.

These high exemption levels shift the focus of estate planning away from simply “avoiding the cliff” toward more measured, annual “top-off” gifting strategies combined with charitable planning.

 

Strategic Opportunities in 2026 and Beyond

Despite these new constraints, several advanced techniques can maximize charitable impact while minimizing tax burdens:

  • Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs): For those age 70½ and older, QCDs allow for direct transfers from IRAs to qualified charities up to $111,000 in 2026. This is a premier strategy because it bypasses the 0.5% AGI floor and the 35% deduction cap entirely.
  • Multi-Year “Bunching”: Donors can combine what would have been several years of smaller gifts into one large contribution to a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) or other charitable organizations. This allows them to clear the 0.5% AGI floor in a single year while maintaining distributions to their preferred causes.
  • Gifting Appreciated Stock: Donating long-term appreciated securities to charities remains powerful, as it allows donors to avoid capital gains taxes while claiming a full fair market value deduction.
  • Split-Interest Trusts: Tools like Charitable Lead Trusts (CLTs) and Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs) offer structured ways to provide income to charities or donors for specified periods while managing estate taxes.

Rethinking Wealth Transfer: Lifetime Gifting and Beyond

The substantial increase in the permanent Estate and Gift Tax Exemptions to $15 million for individuals and $30 million for married couples fundamentally alters the focus of high-net-worth estate planning. With fewer estates facing the federal estate tax “cliff,” advisors and donors are shifting their focus from tax mitigation to efficient, lifetime wealth transfer and philanthropic impact.

  • Focus on Basis and Income: Since Federal estate taxes are less of an immediate concern, planning now prioritizes managing the cost basis of assets transferred to heirs. Donors must carefully consider whether lifetime gifts, which carry over basis, or testamentary bequests, which receive a step-up in basis, are more beneficial for the family’s overall long-term tax picture. This often reinforces the benefit of gifting appreciated stock to charity during life (Gifting Appreciated Stock).
  • The Role of Wealth Replacement: For those utilizing Split-Interest Trusts, such as CRTs that eventually pass assets to charity, the high exemptions make it opportune to integrate wealth replacement trusts funded by life insurance. These trusts ensure that while assets are dedicated to philanthropic goals, the family receives an equal or greater non-taxable benefit to pass on to the next generation, making the charitable commitment a “net neutral” transaction for heirs.

The Crucial Role of the Enhanced Standard Deduction in Strategy

The increase in the baseline Standard Deduction to $16,100 for individuals and $32,200 for married couples is a critical factor influencing the effectiveness of charitable giving. This enhancement means that fewer taxpayers will benefit from itemizing deductions, including charitable contributions.

  • The New Itemization Threshold: Donors must now ensure their total itemized deductions—including state and local taxes (SALT), mortgage interest, and charitable gifts—exceed the new, higher standard deduction amount to gain any tax advantage from their gifts.
  • Reinforcing “Bunching” Strategy: This is precisely why the Multi-Year “Bunching” strategy has become essential to consider, especially when combined with the 0.5% AGI floor. By concentrating several years’ worth of giving into a single year, a donor is more likely to surpass both the AGI floor and the enhanced standard deduction threshold, maximizing the tax benefit in that “bunching” year. In the intervening years, the donor can simply take the enhanced standard deduction.

Wins for Everyday Donors and Seniors

The OBBBA also includes provisions that benefit a broader range of taxpayers:

  • New Above-the-Line Deduction: Non-itemizers can now deduct up to $1,000 (single) or $2,000 (joint) for cash gifts to public charities.
  • Enhanced Standard Deduction: The baseline deduction increases to $16,100 for individuals and $32,200 for married couples.
  • Senior Tax Deduction: Taxpayers age 65 and older are eligible for an additional $6,000 deduction, though this benefit phases out at higher income levels.

As we move into this new legislative environment, it is critical for donors to work with their advisors to calculate true “effective tax rates” for gifts and recalibrate their strategies to ensure their generosity continues to have the greatest possible impact.

The Advisor’s Guide to Separate and Community Property: Navigating State Borders and Tax Benefits

A client moves from Texas to New York. Another inherits assets in Florida. A third is going through a divorce. In each case, the same question quietly determines the outcome: is the asset Separate Property (SP) or Community Property (CP)?

 

1. The Two Systems: Community vs. Common Law

The U.S. is divided into two primary legal frameworks for marital property. Understanding which applies to your client is the first step in any plan.

Community Property States (The “Partnership” Model)

  • Primary States: AZ, CA, ID, LA, NV, NM, TX, WA, WI.
  • Philosophy: Marriage is a 50/50 partnership. Most assets acquired during marriage are owned equally by both spouses, regardless of whose name is on the title.
  • The “Double Step-Up”: Under IRC § 1014(b)(6), when one spouse dies, 100% of the community property receives a step-up in basis to fair market value. This can wipe out massive capital gains for the survivor—a benefit not automatically available in common law states.

Common Law / Separate Property States (The “Title” Model)

  • States: The other 41 states (e.g., NY, FL, IL, OH).
  • Philosophy: Ownership is generally determined by how the asset is titled. If it’s in the Husband’s name, it’s his property.
  • The “Single Step-Up”: At death, typically only the deceased spouse’s interest in the property (usually 50% if held as joint tenants) gets a basis step-up.

 

2. Managing Separate Property in a Joint World

A common pain point for advisors is managing “Separate Property”—assets owned before marriage or received via gift/inheritance.

The Gold Standard for Advisors: Keep it separate. If a client receives a $1M inheritance and deposits it into a joint checking account used for household bills, that asset has likely been commingled. In many jurisdictions, once assets are commingled, they are presumed to be marital or community property, losing their protection in a divorce or from a spouse’s creditors.

How Wealth.com Solves This:

Our platform is designed to accommodate both property types within a single Joint Revocable Trust structure.

  • Delineation: Our trust agreements include a “Character of Property” clause. As long as the underlying accounts are properly labeled, the trust respects the asset’s original character (SP vs. CP).
  • Naming Conventions: To prevent accidental commingling, our Trust Owner’s Manual guides clients on how to title accounts (e.g., “Jane Doe, Separate Property Sub-Trust”) to maintain legal boundaries while keeping everything under one “roof.”

 

3. The “Tax-Only” Community Property Trap

Clients in common law states often envy the “double step-up” tax advantage. This has led to the rise of Community Property Trusts (CPTs) in “opt-in” states like Alaska, Florida, Kentucky, South Dakota, and Tennessee.

While these trusts aim to grant common-law residents the tax benefits of CP, advisors must be wary:

  • Legal Consequences: You cannot usually opt-in to the tax benefits without also opting-in to the legal burdens. In California, for example, transmuting property to CP means it is subject to a 50/50 split in divorce—no “tax-only” exceptions.
  • Enforceability: Agreements that attempt to claim CP for the IRS but disclaim it for creditors or divorce are legally fragile. Courts often find that if you tell the IRS it’s community property, it’s community property for all purposes.

 

4. When the Rules Change: Relocation

One of the most overlooked risks is “migratory property.”

  • CP to Common Law: If a couple moves from Texas (CP) to Florida (Common Law), their assets usually retain their community property character (and the double step-up potential) unless they affirmatively change them.
  • Common Law to CP: Conversely, many CP states use “Quasi-Community Property” rules, which treat common law assets as community property if they would have been CP had the couple lived there originally.

 

5. Advisor Summary Table

IssueCommunity Property StatesCommon Law / Separate Property States
Step-up in Basis100% of CP gets a step-up at 1st death (IRC § 1014(b)(6)).Only the decedent’s portion gets a step-up.
Creditor AccessCreditors can often reach all CP for one spouse’s debt.Creditors generally only reach assets titled to the debtor spouse.
DivorceOften a strict 50/50 split of all community assets.“Equitable Distribution” (fair, but not always equal).
Best StrategyUse Transmutation Agreements sparingly and with counsel.Consider Opt-In Community Property Trusts for high-basis assets.

 

Sources:
  1. Internal Revenue Service. (2024). Publication 555: Community Property.
  2. Cornell Law School. (2026). 26 U.S. Code § 1014 – Basis of property acquired from a decedent. Legal Information Institute.
  3. American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). (2025). What is Community Property? Resource Center.
  4. California Legislative Information. (2026). Family Code Sections 850–852: Transmutation of Property.
  5. Goosmann Law Firm. (2025). Community Property vs. Separate Property from an Estate Planner’s Perspective

FinCEN’s Residential Real Estate Rule: What Financial Advisors Need to Know

The FinCEN Residential Real Estate Rule is officially in effect.

As of March 1, 2026, certain professionals involved in real estate closings and settlements must file a Real Estate Report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for specific non-financed transfers of residential real estate to legal entities or trusts.

The Department of the Treasury has long warned that residential real estate can be used to conceal illicit funds, particularly when properties are purchased through layered entities or all-cash transactions. This rule is designed to increase transparency in those situations by requiring disclosure of beneficial ownership and transaction details.

For financial advisors, this matters immediately. Many clients hold property inside LLCs, family entities, and irrevocable trusts. Whether you are coordinating an estate strategy, facilitating a gift, or advising on a like-kind exchange, understanding how this rule operates will help you navigate transactions that are now subject to federal reporting requirements.

 

What Is the Residential Real Estate Rule?

The Residential Real Estate Rule requires certain professionals involved in real estate closings and settlements to submit reports to FinCEN regarding qualifying non-financed transfers of residential real estate to legal entities or trusts.

The reporting requirement applies to transfers with a closing date on or after March 1, 2026.

The rule focuses on transactions that historically have presented elevated money-laundering risk, particularly all-cash purchases made through business entities or trusts that obscure true beneficial ownership.

 

When Is a Transfer Reportable?

A Real Estate Report must be filed when all four of the following conditions are met:

  1. The property is residential real property.
  2. The transfer is non-financed.
  3. The property is transferred to a legal entity or trust, not an individual.
  4. No exemption applies.

Importantly, the value of the property does not determine whether reporting is required. Even low-value transfers or gifts can be reportable if the criteria are met.

What Counts as Residential Real Property?

Residential real property generally includes:

  • Single-family homes
  • Townhouses
  • Condominiums
  • Cooperative units
  • Buildings designed for occupancy by one to four families
  • Certain land where the transferee intends to build qualifying residential structures

The definition applies to property located in U.S. states, territories, and certain tribal lands.

Vacant land without intent to build qualifying residential property is not covered.

What Transfers Are Exempt?

Several categories of transfers are excluded from reporting, including:

  • Transfers resulting from death, including inheritance and beneficiary designations
  • Transfers incident to divorce
  • Court-supervised transfers
  • Transfers to bankruptcy estates
  • Certain transfers to revocable trusts where the grantor is the same individual and no consideration is exchanged
  • Transfers to qualified intermediaries in Section 1031 like-kind exchanges

However, if property ultimately moves from a qualified intermediary to a legal entity or trust, that subsequent transfer may still be reportable. Advisors should review transaction structure carefully before assuming an exemption applies.

Who Is Responsible for Filing?

FinCEN uses a “reporting cascade” to determine who must file the Real Estate Report.

The reporting person is the first professional in the transaction who performs one of several specified roles, such as:

  • The closing or settlement agent
  • The person preparing the settlement statement
  • The individual filing the deed
  • The title insurance underwriter
  • The party disbursing the largest amount of funds
  • The person evaluating title status
  • The preparer of the deed or transfer instrument

If none of these roles are performed, reporting may not be required. Financial institutions already subject to antimoney laundering program requirements are exempt from serving as the reporting person. In those cases, responsibility moves to the next eligible party. Professionals may also enter into written designation agreements assigning reporting responsibility to another party in the cascade.

What Information Must Be Reported?

The Real Estate Report requires detailed disclosure regarding:

The Reporting Person

  • Legal name
  • Role in the reporting cascade
  • Business address

The Property

  • Street address
  • Legal description

The Transferee Entity or Trust

  • Legal name and any trade name
  • Principal place of business
  • Unique identifying number
  • Total consideration paid
  • Beneficial ownership information
  • Signing individuals

Beneficial Owners

For each beneficial owner of a transferee entity or trust:

  • Full legal name
  • Date of birth
  • Residential address
  • Country of citizenship
  • Unique identifying number

For entities, a beneficial owner generally includes individuals who exercise substantial control or own at least 25 percent of the entity. For trusts, beneficial owners may include trustees, certain beneficiaries, grantors with revocation rights, and individuals with authority to dispose of trust assets.

 

Signing Individuals

For each person signing documents on behalf of the entity or trust:

  • Legal name
  • Date of birth
  • Residential address
  • Unique identifying number
  • Capacity in which they signed

Payment Details

  • Total consideration
  • Method of payment
  • Account information for funds used

Reports must be filed by the later of 30 days after closing or the last day of the month following closing. Incomplete reports are not permitted. If required information cannot be obtained, the reporting person must make reasonable efforts to gather it. Failure to report can result in penalties. Filing a Suspicious Activity Report does not replace the obligation to file a Real Estate Report.

What Advisors Should Do Now

Because the rule is already in effect, this is no longer theoretical. Financial advisors should:

  • Ensure entity ownership records are current and documented
  • Confirm beneficial ownership information is accurate before a property closes
  • Coordinate early with attorneys, escrow agents, and title companies
  • Review whether planned transfers qualify for exemptions
  • Prepare clients for increased transparency around ownership

Real estate frequently intersects with estate planning, tax strategy, and business structuring. The FinCEN Residential Real Estate Rule adds another compliance layer to those conversations. The advisors who are proactive will help clients move transactions forward without unexpected friction.

 

Further Reading

Wealth.com and The Compound Insights Release New Study on the Rise of “Giving While Living” and Family-Wide Legacy Planning

PHOENIX – February 25th, 2026— Wealth.com, the industry’s leading estate and tax planning platform, and The Compound Insights, the research arm of The Compound Media, Inc., an affiliate of Ritholtz Wealth Management (“Ritholtz”), a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), today released a new study titled “Living Legacies: How ‘Giving While Living’ and Family-Wide Planning Are Rewiring Advisory Growth.” Based on a survey of more than 400 financial advisors conducted between November 26 and December 21, 2025, the report offers a detailed look at how evolving client expectations are reshaping the role of legacy and estate planning across the wealth spectrum.

Among the report’s most striking findings: advisors report that, on average, nearly half (46 percent) of clients who plan to pass assets intend to share a portion of their wealth during their lifetimes. Among clients with more than $25 million, that figure rises to 55 percent. These numbers indicate that “giving while living” is no longer a niche philosophy, but a mainstream priority among affluent families. 

“Advisors are on the front lines of the $124 trillion great wealth transfer, and this research makes clear that legacy planning is no longer optional,” said Rafael Loureiro, co-founder and chief executive officer of Wealth.com. “Nearly half of clients planning to pass assets are already engaging in lifetime giving, and firms that proactively involve families report stronger growth and greater confidence in retaining the next generation.”

The findings suggest that family-wide engagement is associated with stronger reported business outcomes. Advisors who hold meetings with both partners or all account holders were more likely to report success in generating new assets and referrals. Fifty-four percent of advisors who include family members in legacy planning discussions say they are very or extremely confident in retaining the next generation as clients. Additionally, advisors whose client base includes a higher share of households committed to lifetime giving were more likely to report measurable practice growth over the past 12 months.

At the same time, the report identifies what it calls a “legacy planning demand gap.” Thirty-seven percent report hesitating because clients have not explicitly asked for it. The findings suggest that clients and advisors may each be waiting for the other to initiate the conversation.

Additionally, as advisor conviction around legacy planning is high, perceived operational complexity continues to slow adoption. Thirty-nine percent of advisors cited complex family dynamics as a barrier, while others pointed to legal coordination challenges and the time burden of managing the process. As legacy planning expands beyond ultra-high-net-worth households, the need for scalable infrastructure is becoming increasingly urgent. In fact, 34 percent of advisors said they would adopt AI/automation tools in the next 12 months, and 27 percent said they would use an attorney coordination portal. The report suggests that centralized platforms, automated workflows and coordinated document management can reduce friction, freeing advisors to focus on the high-impact conversations that build trust and continuity across generations.

“One of the more interesting findings in this report is the disconnect between client behavior and advisor initiation,” said Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz. “Lifetime giving is becoming more common, and advisors who formalize family engagement around those decisions seemingly enjoy stronger growth outcomes and greater confidence in retaining the next generation. But at the same time, many firms are still waiting for clients to raise the topic. The opportunity appears to lie in starting these conversations earlier and building a repeatable process around them.”

For advisors exploring how to better equip families across generations, complimentary copies of the report will be available at the Wealth.com booth during Future Proof Citywide and downloadable here.

 

 

About Wealth.com

Wealth.com is the industry’s leading estate and tax planning platform, empowering thousands of wealth management firms to modernize how planning guidance is delivered to clients. Purpose-built for financial institutions, Wealth.com is the only tech-led, end-to-end platform that enables firms to scale estate and tax planning with efficiency, consistency and measurable client impact. 

Trusted by some of the largest names in finance, Wealth.com combines proprietary AI, enterprise-grade security, and deep legal and tax expertise to support the full spectrum of client needs—from foundational estate plans to advanced estate and tax analysis and reporting. With the introduction of Wealth.com Tax Planning, firms can deliver more integrated, proactive planning through a single platform. Wealth.com has been widely recognized for innovation and leadership, earning Top Estate Planning Technology and Top Estate Planning Implementation at the 2025 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards, as well as the #1 estate planning market share in the 2025 Kitces AdvisorTech Study.

 

About The Compound Insights

The Compound Insights conducts research surveys through The Compound Media, Inc., an affiliate of Ritholtz Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor. The Compound Insights is the Information and Research arm of The Compound Media, Incorporated. 

Serving the Advisory ecosystem through the creation of surveys, other market research, and custom content, The Compound Insights delivers high-quality observations and revelations for the advisor and investing community. 

This research is for general informational purposes only. The information contained herein should not be relied upon as a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities discussed. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal.  Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee of future results.

 

MEDIA CONTACT:

StreetCred PR
[email protected]

Audrey Clay

865-253-6082

[email protected]

Rob Farmer
415-377-3293
[email protected]

Tax Planning for Next-Gen Clients: A Guide for Financial Advisors

Tax planning for next-generation clients is no longer a future concern. It is a present-day requirement for advisory firms that want to retain assets, deepen relationships, and stay relevant as wealth, control, and complexity shift to younger households.

Gen X, Millennials, and young business owners approach taxes differently than prior generations. Their balance sheets are more dynamic. Their income is less predictable. Their expectations for advice are higher, and their tolerance for fragmented planning is low. For advisors, this creates both risk and opportunity.

The firms that win with next-gen clients treat tax planning as an integrated discipline, not a seasonal exercise. They align tax strategy with estate planning, business planning, and long-term wealth transfer, and they deliver that advice through consistent, repeatable workflows.

 

Why next-gen tax planning looks different

Younger clients face a tax environment that is more volatile and more visible. Marginal rates shift. Estate tax exemptions remain politically uncertain. Business structures evolve as companies grow, sell, or recapitalize. At the same time, next-gen clients are more informed and more engaged in decision-making.

Several structural factors drive this shift:

  • Income concentration and variability. Equity compensation, business income, and liquidity events often create uneven tax years.
  • Earlier wealth transfer. Gifts, family support, and ownership transitions now happen earlier in life.
  • Complex household structures. Blended families, unmarried partners, and multigenerational dependents are common.
  • Higher scrutiny. Digital records, third-party reporting, and regulatory visibility leave less room for informal planning.

For advisors, tax planning must account for these realities without slowing down the broader advisory relationship.

 

Gen X clients: peak earnings and competing priorities

Gen X clients often sit at the intersection of peak earning years and peak responsibility. They may be funding retirement, supporting children, and helping aging parents, all while navigating business ownership or senior executive compensation.

Effective tax planning for this group focuses on coordination:

  • Deferred compensation and equity strategies aligned with retirement timing and liquidity needs.
  • Charitable planning that integrates donor-advised funds, appreciated assets, and long-term philanthropic intent.
  • Estate planning updates that reflect growing asset values and changing family dynamics.

The risk is not lack of sophistication. It is lack of integration. Advisors who connect tax decisions to the estate plan create clarity and reduce downstream rework.

 

Millennials: growing wealth, rising complexity

Millennial clients are often underestimated. Many are business founders, senior technology professionals, or beneficiaries of early family transfers. Their tax profiles can change quickly, sometimes within a single year.

Key planning considerations include:

  • Entity selection and restructuring as businesses scale.
  • Equity compensation planning around vesting, exercise, and liquidity.
  • Early gifting strategies that leverage current exemptions while maintaining flexibility.
  • State tax exposure as remote work and mobility increase.

Millennials expect transparency and speed. They are less tolerant of disconnected advisors and more likely to disengage if advice feels reactive.

Advisors who pair tax planning with a clear estate planning framework demonstrate long-term thinking and earn trust early in the relationship.

 

Young business owners: tax planning is estate planning

For younger business owners, tax planning is not a once-a-year exercise. It is happening in real time as the business grows.

Equity is vesting. Investors are coming in. Compensation is shifting from salary to distributions. A potential acquisition conversation can surface overnight. Every structural decision carries both tax consequences and long-term estate implications. Ownership structure, equity, and transfer timing do not just shape tax outcomes. They shape control, liquidity, and family wealth.

Advisors should focus on:

  • Ensuring operating agreements, cap tables, and estate documents actually align. A mismatch can create chaos during a disability event, sudden exit, or founder dispute.
  • Modeling valuation-aware strategies before growth accelerates, not after. Gifting interests early, structuring buy-sell agreements properly, and planning for liquidity events can dramatically change long-term outcomes.
  • Designing succession frameworks that account for co-founders, key employees, and family expectations, not just tax efficiency.
  • Preparing contingency plans for the unexpected, including incapacity, founder separation, or an unsolicited acquisition offer.

For younger business owners, the cost of poor coordination is not theoretical. Missed elections, outdated documents, or unclear authority can mean lost negotiating leverage, unnecessary taxes, or operational disruption at the worst possible moment.

Integrated tax and estate planning protects both the business and the people building it.

 

The advisor challenge: complexity at scale

Most advisors understand these concepts. The challenge is delivering them consistently across a growing book of next-gen clients.

Tax planning touches multiple disciplines and stakeholders, including CPAs, attorneys, trust companies, and internal planning teams. Without a shared system of record, advice becomes fragmented, and risk increases.

Common pain points include:

  • Inconsistent estate plan reviews.
  • Limited visibility into document status and updates.
  • Manual workflows that do not scale.
  • Difficulty demonstrating value beyond tax season.

This is where modern estate planning infrastructure becomes essential.

 

Estate planning as the organizing layer

For next-gen clients, the estate plan is often the most durable framework for tax planning decisions. It captures ownership, intent, authority, and transfer mechanics in one place.

When estate planning is current and accessible:

  • Tax strategies align more easily with long-term goals.
  • Advisors can identify planning gaps earlier.
  • Collaboration with attorneys and compliance teams improves.
  • Firms reduce operational and regulatory risk. 

Treating the estate plan as a living component of the advisory relationship, rather than a static document set, allows tax planning to evolve alongside the client.

 

How Wealth.com supports next-gen tax planning

Wealth.com is the leading estate and tax planning platform for financial institutions. We help advisors integrate estate and tax planning into their broader planning workflows so tax strategy, wealth transfer, and client outcomes stay aligned.

Through a modern, advisor-first platform, Wealth.com enables firms to:

  • Deliver client-ready, side-by-side tax strategy comparisons with clear net impact quantification.
  • Model high-value scenarios like Roth conversions, RMD strategies, and charitable planning in real time.
  • Instantly analyze 1040s via PDF upload with automated data extraction.
  • Run rapid historical reviews to uncover missed planning opportunities.
  • Integrate tax strategy directly with estate planning workflows for holistic alignment.
  • Support complex client needs without adding operational burden.

For next-gen clients, this creates a better experience. For advisors, it creates scale, clarity, and confidence.

 

The strategic opportunity for advisory firms

Tax planning for Gen X, Millennials, and business owners is not about adding more tactics. It is about building the right foundation.

Firms that lead with integrated tax and estate planning will be positioned to:

  • Retain assets through generational transitions.
  • Deepen relationships with business-owning households.
  • Reduce operational and regulatory risk as complexity increases.
  • Demonstrate measurable value beyond portfolio performance.

Next-gen clients are not waiting. They are aligning with advisors who can deliver coordinated, forward-looking planning with clarity and confidence. The question is whether your firm has the infrastructure to compete.

Modern tax planning includes modern estate planning. Book a demo with Wealth.com to see how integrated planning can scale across your firm at www.wealth.com/demo.

Navigating Capacity and Conflict: The Estate Planner’s Role in Combating Elder Financial Abuse

Testamentary capacity and contractual capacity are critical, yet often subtle, threats to the validity of a client’s estate plan and whether their final wishes will be respected. If you work with a client who is older and where capacity to make a will or a trust may be questioned by any of their potential beneficiaries, you should consider the implications of, and how to protect against, a claim that your client lacked testamentary capacity.

Testamentary capacity is the legal term for a person’s mental ability to create or alter a valid will. It is generally considered to be a lower standard than contractual capacity, which is required for making any kind of contract, which includes a trust. Both are tested by courts at the time when the will or trust is created or updated.

For financial advisors and their firms, the responsibility extends beyond simple compliance. It requires a proactive, defensive posture within the estate planning process. When an older client’s decisions regarding their estate appear coerced or their final wishes seem to suddenly and illogically shift, the core issue quickly pivots to legal capacity and the presence of undue influence. A breakdown in capacity awareness and a failure to address influence concerns can lead directly to contested documents and subsequent, costly litigation against the client’s estate and the firm itself.

In passing, it’s important to recognize that the same vulnerabilities that expose a client to undue influence in their estate planning are also strong indicators that they may be vulnerable in managing their day-to-day financial affairs. However, the primary focus for firms must be on the legal standard of undue influence as it relates to the validity and contestability of essential estate planning documents.

The Critical Challenge of Client Capacity

It is common for an elderly client to communicate through a close family member, personal assistant, or caretaker. This dynamic, while practical for daily interaction, raises a significant concern for the advisor: ensuring the estate plan truly reflects the client’s autonomous will and not the demands of an interested party. This is required under the legal standard for ensuring there is not undue influence in the estate planning process. The presence of an overbearing or overly-involved third party is a crucial red flag that requires immediate, objective documentation by the attorney, and a financial advisor may be called upon to assist.

Case Study: The Brooke Astor Scandal

The worst-case scenario for any professional serving an elderly client is having their professional judgment—particularly regarding the client’s mental capacity—challenged under oath in a public courtroom. No situation illustrates this professional and reputational hazard more vividly than the high-profile litigation surrounding the estate of Brooke Astor.

The case centered on allegations that Mrs. Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, and her attorney, Francis X. Morrissey Jr., exerted undue influence to change her will in 2003 and 2004, when she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The resulting criminal trial and civil litigation placed many of the people closest to Mrs. Astor—including her long-time, trusted attorneys, financial advisors, and even personal staff—on the witness stand.

The core of the defense and prosecution arguments required these professionals to testify in granular detail about their interactions with Mrs. Astor, including:

  • When they last saw her.
  • What she said and how she acted.
  • Whether, in their professional opinion, she possessed the legal capacity to understand and execute the documents in question.

This litigation demonstrated how the judgment of trusted advisors regarding client capacity and freedom from influence can become the central, devastating question after a client’s death, turning private financial planning into a public, protracted legal spectacle.

Proactive Capacity Determination

If you are a financial advisor and you suspect that your client’s mental capacity or influence from trusted intermediaries could become an issue upon death, you can proceed with helping them with estate planning, but documentation and a litigation-avoidance mindset become important. 

Your client must hire an attorney, and you should help the attorney document the client’s mental state and intentions, moving beyond simple observation to establish an auditable record.

After your client has passed away, a person seeking to challenge their updated or newly created estate planning documents will have the burden of proof, by clear and convincing evidence, that your client suffered from diminished capacity and was subjected to undue influence. The burden of proof will feel even higher if you helped your client to document their intent and capacity before the claim when the estate plan is executed. Importantly, greater weight is usually given if the evidence is close-in-time to the date when a legal document was signed.

To do this:

  1. Have an Honest Conversation: The initial engagement must include an open discussion with the client, acknowledging the dynamics in the family and any risk of post-death litigation. It should be the attorney’s role to address this issue, but if you are the more trusted advisor, this topic may fall to you. 
    1. Address that awkwardness head on. Frame the contemporaneous capacity review as a protective measure in the best interests of the client’s intended beneficiaries. “Now, I know that no one wants to talk about this topic, but you have told me in the past that you are concerned about your daughter being angry that you’re changing your mind about her share. The most obvious way to attach your estate plan is to claim that you didn’t know what you were doing when you signed your will.” “The point here is not to embarrass you. It is to make sure that how you define your legacy is respected.”
    2. Mention that solutions exist to defend against a claim and make it almost impossible to attach the plan. Leave the details to the attorney. “Your wishes as a client should be respected by the court and those who remain after you. If you think this may be an issue, as I do, would you like us to think about how to achieve that?”
  2. Document Capacity: The attorney should have a standard bag of tricks for creating the documentation to defend the validity of their estate planning documents. These tactics may have a wide range of costs and reliability, but are all aimed to create a record that would present significant hurdles to a litigant. 
    1. First, the attorney may  use a standardized, reputable assessment tool to determine capacity before accepting to update or create an estate plan. The most commonly used one is published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Of course, an attorney is not specifically trained to assess mental capacity, but this may be better proof than the litigant can submit that your client had capacity at the time the estate planning documents were executed.
    2. Second, your client may seek a psychological assessment from their primary physician, and their findings could be entered into their medical records.
    3. Lastly, your client may choose to be examined by a neurologist for the express purpose of establishing the minimum mental capacity and free will to be able to execute estate planning documents. A geriatric neurologist or forensic neuropsychologist specializing in assessment of testamentary and contractual capacity may be preferred. 
  3. Clearly Delineate the Intermediary’s Role: Your client should write or orally dictate how the client wants the attorney and other advisors to interact with the relaying party (i.e., a child or caretaker). Importantly, the client should establish the boundaries of the intermediary’s authority. This step prevents the intermediary from inadvertently or deliberately controlling the process and helps ensure a clear line of communication directly to the client regarding sensitive decisions. 
  4. Avoid Digital Estate Planning Platforms: Where your client’s mental capacity may become an issue, it is important to consider whether your client can meaningfully make their own legally effective selections in a browser-based tool. Moreover, an attorney is ideally positioned to advise your client on strategies to mitigate litigation risk based on a claim of undue influence or lack of mental capacity. Those are not issues that a digital estate planning platform should be handling because they require legal advice.

The Higher Bar: Testamentary vs. Contractual Capacity

The requisite capacity changes based on the type of document being executed. The legal standard for capacity to execute a will is lower than the standard required to execute a trust, which is at its core, a contract:

  • Testamentary Capacity (Wills): Most states use a standard requiring the client to understand three core elements: the nature of the act (making a will), the general nature and extent of their property (bounty), and the natural objects of their bounty (beneficiaries). This threshold is deliberately designed to be low to uphold the personal autonomy of the testator. The test for a will focuses on basic comprehension at the time of execution.
  • Contractual Capacity (Trusts): Because a trust is fundamentally a contract that involves ongoing fiduciary responsibilities and property management, the client must meet the higher standard of contractual capacity. This typically requires a greater comprehension of the document’s long-term effects, including the potential financial consequences and the ongoing obligations being created for the trustee and beneficiaries. This higher bar reflects the complexity and longer time of effect of a trust agreement.

In situations where the likelihood of litigation based on mental capacity is significant, the most stringent defense is to recommend the client undergo a neurological assessment on the day of or the day before document signing. The resulting report must be comprehensive, specifically addressing both the lower testamentary capacity standard and the higher contractual capacity standard, and in the absence of any persons other than the client and the person conducting the assessment. In particular, none of the attorney, the advisor, nor any intermediaries should be present. A positive report removes issues of fact that the litigant might otherwise bring before the court. 

Conclusion

For wealth management firms and their advisors, proactively addressing the risks of undue influence and diminished capacity is not merely a matter of compliance, but a fundamental pillar of fiduciary responsibility and reputational defense. The case of Brooke Astor serves as a stark warning that failure to establish a robust, objective, and auditable record of a client’s autonomous will can result in costly, public litigation where professional judgment is placed on trial. By adopting a litigation-avoidance mindset, collaborating with legal counsel to implement contemporaneous capacity documentation—including objective medical assessments—and clearly defining the role of intermediaries, advisors can create significant hurdles for potential challengers, ultimately ensuring the client’s final wishes and legacy are honored.

The Top 5 Tax Changes Financial Advisors Need to Know in 2026

The 2026 landscape for financial advisors offers both complexity as well as opportunity as clients brace for sizable changes from years past. These changes create planning windows that require immediate attention, but they can also introduce tax traps for high-net-worth clients that advisors must navigate carefully.

From the sunsetting of many pieces of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to adjustments brought on by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (such as avoiding the dreaded estate tax “cliff”), tax planning opportunities are everywhere.

If your firm is managing clients across the wealth spectrum, the challenge is straightforward. Proactive tax planning is the only way to help clients avoid potentially higher than expected payments down the line.

Now, let’s look at the five most impactful changes for 2026 for estate and tax planning.

Top 5 Tax Changes in 2026 Advisors Need to Know

1. The $15 Million Estate Exemption Floor

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act replaced the feared estate tax “sunset cliff” with a permanent exemption floor of $15 million per individual, or $30 million for married couples, indexed for inflation. This resolves years of planning around a potential 50% drop to roughly $7 million exemption floor and materially changes how you can frame estate strategy discussions.

Instead of urgency-driven gifting, the planning objective shifts to growth management and asset freezing. High-net-worth clients no longer need to rush transfers simply to preserve exemption. They can focus on where future appreciation should live.

For many clients, this increases the relevance of structures such as Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs) and Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGTs). These strategies allow you to lock in today’s exemption while removing future growth from the taxable estate, without forcing irreversible liquidity decisions.

Advisory Impact: Shift client conversations from “crisis gifting” to growth-focused planning. For clients with estates approaching $15 to $30 million, consider the use of SLATs and IDGTs to freeze asset values at this high baseline while preserving flexibility.

2. Managing the “SALT Torpedo” ($500k–$600k MAGI)

The OBBBA increased the State and Local Tax deduction cap to $40,000 for the 2025 tax year (as adjusted for inflation, this is a cap of $40,400 for 2026 and will be adjusted 1% each year thereafter). On its face, that looks like relief. However, the provision includes a phaseout between $500,000 and $600,000 of Modified Adjusted Gross Income that creates a tax trap for impacted clients.

Within this $100,000 band, each additional dollar of income reduces the SALT deduction by 30 cents. When layered on top of federal and state marginal rates, this can push effective marginal tax rates north of 45 percent.

You should assume that clients hovering near this threshold will experience meaningful tax friction if their income timing is not coordinated. Capital gains realization, trust distributions, Roth conversions, and bonus income all matter more inside this narrow window than outside it. It is also worth nothing that the increased SALT cap will sunset, absent further congressional action, beginning in 2030, when it set to revert back to $10,000.

Advisory Impact: Use scenario modeling to time capital gains, trust distributions, and other income events outside the $500,000 to $600,000 MAGI band. For clients who cannot avoid this range, consider strategies to reduce MAGI such as increased 401(k) contributions or funding a Health Savings Account.

3. Permanence of the 20% QBI Deduction (Section 199A)

The OBBBA made the 20 percent Qualified Business Income deduction permanent, expanded the phase-in ranges to $150,000 for joint filers, and introduced a $400 minimum deduction for active business owners.

If you’re working with founders and closely held businesses, this change removes a major planning uncertainty. The effective top federal rate on qualifying pass-through income now stabilizes at just above 29 percent, which impacts business decisions like entity selection, compensation strategy, and exit planning.

More importantly, the permanence of this change creates a chance to do more long-term modeling. You can now evaluate S-corporation salary splits, aggregation strategies, and succession scenarios without assuming a rate shock a few years down the line.

Advisory Impact: Review entity structure and compensation strategies for pass-through clients. The permanent effective rate changes the calculus for business succession planning and Roth conversion timing. For closely held businesses planning exits, model QBI impact across multiple tax years.

4. Mandatory Roth Catch-Ups for High Earners

Beginning January 1, 2026, the SECURE 2.0 Act requires workers age 50 and older who earned more than $150,000 to make catch-up contributions on a Roth basis

This is not an optional decision; it is a plan design requirement. In 2026, the limit for catch-up contributions increases to $8,000.

If you recall, SECURE 2.0 was enacted back in 2022 but this part of the Act has been delayed until now.

Advisory Impact: This is a mandatory plan design change. It’s also important to note that if a client’s employer plan does not offer a Roth feature by 2026, high earners won’t have the ability to take advantage of these catch-up contributions. You should audit client 401(k) plans now to verify if this strategy is available to them.

5. The “Senior Deduction” Planning Window (2026–2028)

For tax years 2026 through 2028, taxpayers age 65 and older receive a new $6,000 deduction, or $12,000 for married couples, layered on top of existing standard or itemized deductions.

Unlike some of the other permanent changes we’ve covered, this provision is temporary.

For retirees with moderate income, the deduction creates a short-term opportunity to absorb additional taxable income without increasing marginal rates. In practice, this makes tax bracket management with Roth conversions more efficient during this three-year window.

The opportunity is most relevant for retirees who can keep Modified Adjusted Gross Income below $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint) while converting portions of traditional IRAs.

Advisory Impact: Identify clients age 65 and older with traditional IRA balances and MAGI below the thresholds. Model multi-year Roth conversion planning for 2026 through 2028 to maximize the benefit of the temporary senior deduction before it expires.

 

What These Tax Changes Mean for Your Advisory Firm

These 2026 tax changes reward proactive planning. Each of these five provisions covered here creates a window where strategic timing can deliver measurable client value, for both long-term and short-term tax strategies.

For you and your firm, this translates to an increased need for scenario modeling, income timing coordination, and multi-year tax projections. The firms that deliver this level of planning will have an incredible opportunity to strengthen client relationships and differentiate their practice.

To see how your firm can model these 2026 tax changes and turn them into measurable planning value, learn more about Wealth.com Tax Planning at wealth.com/tax.

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: Wealth.com does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice. The choice of trust jurisdiction depends on your client’s specific family dynamics, asset mix, and goals.

The Modern Inheritance Trap: How DNA Tests Make Specificity the New Standard in Estate Planning

At-home genetic testing has transformed how families uncover their histories, but it has also introduced new complexity into estate planning. According to The Wall Street Journal article, “They Found Relatives on 23andMe and Asked for a Cut of the Inheritance,” unexpected discoveries are now leading to inheritance claims from previously unknown relatives, intensifying disputes that have existed for generations.

This is the ultimate modern cautionary tale: The person you thought was your sole child might have an unknown half-sibling who now has a legal claim to your estate.

The issue isn’t simply using general terms like “to my descendants” or “to my children.” The real vulnerability lies in using these terms without precisely defining who is included and, crucially, who is excluded.

Fortunately, a well-drafted estate plan is the definitive defense against unknown heirs and unintended consequences.

The Three Pillars of Protection Against Unknown Heirs

To shield your intended beneficiaries from costly challenges, your estate plan must be exceptionally clear. These three essential steps help ensure your legacy goes exactly where you intend:

  1. Establish a Formal Estate Plan: The foundation of protection is a legally sound Will and/or Trust. Dying intestate (without a plan) subjects your estate to state intestacy laws, which rely on biological relationships—a perfect scenario for an unknown heir to stake a claim based on genetic proof.
  2. Define a Closed Set of “Children”: Clarity begins at the first generation. Your documents should specifically list your intended children (by name) and explicitly state that any child not listed is disavowed as an heir. This closes the door to newly discovered half-siblings or biological children unknown to you.
  3. Coordinate the Definition of “Descendants”: For inheritance purposes beyond your children’s generation (grandchildren, great-grandchildren), the plan should incorporate a similarly limited definition of “descendant” that seamlessly coordinates with the specific list of children defined in Step 2. You may also want to consider limiting further descendants to exclude potential unknown descendants of your children and further generations as well.

The Power of Per Stirpes

While you must specifically name your primary children, it is impractical (and unnecessary) to list every future grandchild and remote descendant. This is where a powerful legal concept comes into play: per stirpes.

Per stirpes (Latin for “by the branch”) is a legal term defined for estate planning that allows a deceased person’s share of an inheritance to pass down to their descendants. It’s a mechanism of representation. For example, if you have two children (A and B), and A dies before you, A’s share would pass per stirpes to A’s children (your grandchildren).

By defining your children narrowly (Step 2) and then using the legal concept of per stirpes (Step 3) for all subsequent generations, you ensure that only the family lines you explicitly approve can benefit. However, as noted above, further consideration should be given to the possibility that your children or further descendants may have unknown descendants of their own. This is where a carefully crafted definition of “descendants” comes into play within your estate planning documents to ensure that further generations can inherit property by representation (per stirpes), but that those generations are again limited to those actually included in your own personal definition of family. This is particularly vital if your estate plan creates further trusts for future generations, such as dynasty trust structures (where children’s shares are held in further trust for their lifetime and then passed down to their own descendants).

As the legal landscape continues to grapple with the complexities introduced by genetic testing, the lesson for anyone writing or updating their estate plan is simple: specificity is paramount. According to legal experts, “If you leave property to ‘all your nieces and nephews’ as a class gift, and someone can prove through DNA to be a niece or nephew, he will be included in the class gift.” (Stouffer Legal, 2021). The best practice is to use precise, intentional language to name or exclude, giving your wishes the legal weight they deserve. Additionally, if the intent is that assets are held in further trust structures for multiple generations, you should consider all possible scenarios for future potential unknown heirs/descendants that you may want to exclude.

Usually, this is accomplished by taking a dual approach to the problem in your legal documents. First, name the individuals whom you consider to be your children. Legally, you will be closing the set of individuals who can make a claim as a member of the next generation. Second, your legal document should clearly define the word “descendant” by covering the situations under which you would or would not consider someone to be a descendant. This definition would apply to the descendants of your children (or any other family member who is named as your beneficiary and whose descendants might inherit your assets). For example, the definition might address adoption, assistive reproductive technology, the child who is conceived before death but born after death, and the child who is born out of wedlock.  

A comprehensive estate planning platform like Wealth.com is perfectly positioned to operationalize these three pillars of protection. First, users create estate planning documents that are legally binding, override default laws, and provide guidance in areas where laws are silent. Second, the guided forms require users to explicitly name a closed set of children, if the user has at least one child, and automatically provide a comprehensive definition of “descendant” to cover unusual circumstances and of “per stirpes” to describe who qualifies as a member of the user’s subsequent generations. This integrated approach ensures that the digital convenience of the platform results in a legally robust document, giving users confidence that their estate plan is fortified against the modern challenges posed by DNA discovery and unexpected claims.

Sources and Further Reading

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