October 14, 2020

The current environment of your state and the federal economy and relevant laws can help you to determine whether or not your estate plan meets your goals or needs to be adapted. The Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates very low has made a good environment for you to leverage advanced estate planning tools such as a grantor retained annuity trust or a charitable need annuity trust.

These are two techniques that allow for the transfer of wealth to occur at a reduced gift tax expense and provide that the future appreciation of any individual assets inside of them move on to the new beneficiary without exposure to the estate tax of the individual. A CLAT pays a fixed sum to a determined charity for a certain number of years after which point the remainder will pass to the creator of the trust’s family.

The GRAT pays a set sum back to the creator of the trust for a fixed number of years, then allowing the remainder to pass on to the family. Both of these advanced estate planning strategies can be most effective when you move an asset that has significant appreciation potential, such as a closely held business that you anticipate a successful sale of in the future. Given volatile capital markets currently and low interest rates, this is a good opportunity to evaluate these advanced strategies with your lawyer.