ESTATE TAX PLANNING

Under current law, every American can give away, during their lives or at their deaths, about $11.5 million.  A married couple can give away about $23 million.  For clients with a net worth in excess of those amounts, we can employ a variety of sophisticated and proven techniques to manage your estate tax liabilities.

At the Law Office of Finley Stetson we have a tremendous amount of experience in dealing with ultra-high net worth clients.  We have coordinated with family offices, teams of investment advisors, and other professionals to craft winning solutions to minimize federal and state estate tax liabilities.  We can also leverage our own national and international network to meet each client’s unique needs and circumstances.  

Effective estate tax planning is often a process where multiple techniques are employed with respect to different aspects of a family’s wealth to achieve the desired outcome.  Sometimes these plans take several years to implement.  Making sure that our clients fully understand all aspects of their estate plan, including its structure and how the plan will be implemented, is critically important.

Finley Stetson is nationally recognized as leaders in the field of business succession planning.  We have a tremendous amount of experience in developing plans to transfer family businesses to subsequent generations and using that plan to achieve estate tax efficiencies.

We also have a very strong philanthropic practice.  Senior generations will often want to leave a legacy of giving to younger generations, and we can implement strategies that combine charitable giving with effective tax planning strategies.

A final note, under current law everyone’s estate, gift and generation-skipping-transfer tax exemptions are scheduled to go down to $5.5 million in 2025.  If this does happen, many more individuals will be needing proper estate tax planning.