Dealing With Estate Tax In The US

As the old saying goes – ‘there’s nothing as certain as death or taxes’, yet Estate Tax remains one of the most neglected areas of financial planning in the US.

It’s largely down to the surreal nature of planning for what happens when you die, however it is one of the areas that can be most important if you plan to pass on your hard-earned wealth to your family beyond your life.

The current administration and IRS increased the Estate Tax limit from $5.6 million per individual to $11.18 million in 2018. And while these limits seem high, increasingly people are breaching this limit when they take into account all of their assets, including properties, pensions, saving sand investments. This issue can be exacerbated when early death occurs and there has not been much time to spend and enjoy this money in retirement.

The US and the UK have some of the highest DeathTaxes in the world and so planning around this area is a very important part of the 'holistic' financial planning you should be enjoying.

In the US there are various ways to help mitigate some of these taxes, and working with your Financial Advisor and CertifiedPublic Accountant (CPA) is essential, as without careful planning ahead of time, you could end up leaving more of your hard earned money to Uncle Sam rather than your family you leave behind. 

As with any financial planning, care should be taken as well as professional qualified advice. However, this is certainly a very interesting area and something which you should absolutely be seeking advice on if it is relevant and you have not done so already.

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