The unprecedentedly high estate and gift tax exemption amounts—coupled with uncertainty over those exemptions’ future, a volatile economy, and historically low interest rates—create a call to action for sophisticated estate planning in 2020.  In this episode, Michael Clear, Dan Daniels, and Carolyn Reers discuss how to effectively take advantage of the current estate planning climate by addressing each of the following topics:

• Landscape of the 2020 estate and gift tax system, together with its possibility to change

• Importance of making large gifts now

• Use of freeze transactions – such as grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) and sales to grantor trusts

• Benefits of utilizing the historic low interest rates for loans