Advanced Solutions: Irrevocable Trusts

To achieve significant tax savings, we often utilize a range of advanced tools, chief among them being Irrevocable Trusts. Unlike a revocable trust, an irrevocable trust is designed to be permanent. By transferring assets into an irrevocable trust, you are typically removing them from your taxable estate. In exchange for this powerful tax benefit, you relinquish control over the assets.

The selection and design of these trusts is not a "one-size-fits-all" process. We work closely with you to understand your goals and architect a solution using the specific tools that best fit your unique situation. These may include:

• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)

  This trust is created to own a life insurance policy, ensuring that the death benefit is paid to your beneficiaries completely free of estate taxes and is immediately available to provide for your family.

• Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT)

  A popular strategy for married couples, a SLAT allows one spouse to make a substantial gift into a trust for the benefit of the other spouse. This uses the gifting spouse's tax exemption to move assets out of their combined estate, while the beneficiary spouse can still receive distributions from the trust.

• Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT)

  This trust allows you to transfer your primary home or a vacation residence to your beneficiaries at a significantly reduced gift tax value, while you retain the right to live in the home for a specified number of years.

• Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT)

  A GRAT is a sophisticated wealth-transfer technique ideal for high-growth assets. It allows you to freeze the value of an asset for tax purposes and pass all future appreciation to the next generation with minimal or no gift tax consequences.

• Charitable Trusts (CRATs & CRUTs)

  For clients with philanthropic goals, Charitable Remainder Trusts allow you to transfer assets to a trust that provides you (or others) with an income stream for life, with the remainder passing to your chosen charity. This strategy provides an immediate income tax deduction and removes the asset from your taxable estate.

The world of advanced tax planning is complex, but the outcome is clear: the preservation of your legacy. We are dedicated to helping you navigate these options, architecting a sophisticated, tax-efficient plan that secures your family’s future for generations to come.

• Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust (IDGT)

  This powerful technique removes assets and all their future growth from your taxable estate. The trust is "intentionally defective" for income tax purposes, meaning you, as the grantor, pay the annual income taxes on the trust's earnings. This tax payment is not considered an additional gift, allowing the assets inside the trust to grow completely undiminished by taxes and effectively supercharging the wealth you pass to your beneficiaries.

Learn More About Our Estate Planning Services

Versatile and powerful legal instruments used to manage assets, bypass the public process of probate, provide for loved ones, and create lasting family legacies.

Establishes a clear plan for your medical and financial well-being, designating trusted individuals to make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so yourself.

The foundational document that outlines how your assets should be distributed, names guardians for minor children, and appoints a personal representative/executor to oversee the process.

A well-crafted estate plan will help mitigate or eliminate the tax, so more of what you have built can get passed to your loved ones. See your potential estate tax with our estate tax calculator.

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