Sophisticated Estate Planning Strategies

Post by David Held

Sophisticated Estate Planning Strategies
by Rande Spiegelman, CPA, CFP®, Vice President of Financial Planning, Schwab Center for Financial Research


So far we've covered the basics of estate planning as well as estate tax repeal and the role of lifetime gifting in reducing your taxable estate. Here, we highlight some advanced strategies people can use to accomplish their gift and estate planning goals in a tax-efficient way. Of course, these are but a few of the many estate planning strategies available.

A few things to keep in mind:


Don't be seduced by intriguing strategies or what someone else did with their estate plan. Your estate plan should begin and end with your personal goals and desires, both tax and non-tax—after all, it’s your estate.

Sit down with a qualified estate planner who’s up to date on the latest statutory, regulatory and judicial developments. You may even want to combine the strengths of a qualified CPA (to map the most tax-efficient strategy) and an experienced estate planning attorney (to draft the legal documents and provide additional insights).

Beware of strategies that seem too good to be true, such as excessive valuation discounts, promises of tax-free offshore deals, and the like.

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