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Exploring Advanced Estate Planning Strategies

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“Exploring Advanced Estate Planning Strategies” by Attorney Jon Gasior (Audio)

Most clients come to our law firm to discuss traditional estate planning tools and strategies such as powers of attorney, wills, and revocable trusts. These are great tools for many families. However, there are additional strategies estate planning attorneys can utilize when clients need more advanced planning techniques.

Most advanced estate planning tools are used when clients have taxable estates. In 2024, your estate is taxable if you have over $5 million in assets in Maryland and over $13.61 million at the federal level. In most of the strategies below, the focus is to remove assets from a person’s estate during their lifetime so that the asset is not counted when calculating their estate’s tax liability when they pass away.

  1. Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT): an extremely effective tool and one of the most frequently used options that can remove life insurance proceeds from the estate tax calculation.
  2. Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT): allows the transfer of assets to a spouse to take advantage of these incredibly high exemption amounts during a lifetime.
  3. Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT): an irrevocable trust that allows the creator to remove their personal residence out of their estate for estate tax purposes.
  4. Charitable Trusts: allow the creator to make charitable contributions during their lifetime to reduce their estate tax liability while maintaining some benefit over the assets during a lifetime.
  5. Special Needs Trusts (SNT): designed to protect those with disabilities while maintaining eligibility for government benefits.
  6. Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts: allows for the protection of assets from being available if the trust creator needs Medicaid nursing home coverage.

These are just some of the primary tools we use to provide more advanced planning strategies for clients. Working with an experienced estate planning attorney who is well-versed in advanced planning can ensure maximum protection for your estate. Contact our office to learn more.

Jon J. Gasior, Estate Planning Attorney
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About Jon J. Gasior, Estate Planning Attorney

His personal experience with family and the problems that resulted from their failure to create an estate plan resulted in his desire to learn more about this area of the law. From his work in the Elder Law Clinic, he further realized the need to plan not only for death, but also for incapacity during their lifetime. About the Author !