Madison Estate Council Meeting
Trumping Uncertainty: Strategies For An Ever Changing Estate and Income Tax Environment
Just a few years ago, Congress surprised the estate planning world by passing the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA), which profoundly affected tax and estate planning strategy. We are now faced with a new set of uncertainties such as a potential repeal of step-up in basis that will render much of the last few years’ work obsolete. Further, the uncertain future of the gift tax and the estate tax is prompting many clients to delay action on estate plans or transfer strategies until we know whether President Trump and Congress will eliminate or reduce these taxes. Tom Pauloski argues that we absolutely should not delay all planning, but some strategies work better than others in this environment. The trick is to preserve flexibility: to adopt a strategy that could easily be canceled if transfer taxes are, in fact, eliminated or sharply curtailed. Tom will discuss with the group thoughts on accomplishing this, using the case study format and sophisticated wealth forecasting software to highlight key findings. He will also discuss differences between House Speaker Ryan’s tax plan and President Trump’s tax plan (as outlined in several speeches), and his view on how a compromise plan of some sort is likely to be passed.
5:30 p.m. Cocktails
6:00 p.m. Dinner
6:30 p.m. Speaker Starts
