Preservation | Family Wealth Protection & Planning

The following is a general overview of the estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer (GST) and basic income tax rates for 2017.

Estate tax: Generally, a person dying between Jan. 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2017, may be subject to an estate tax, with an applicable exclusion amount of $5.49 million (increased from $5.45 million in 2016). The top marginal rate remains 40 percent.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Applicable Federal Rates (AFRs) for February 2017, reflecting increases over January’s rates. AFRs, which are published monthly, represent the minimum interest rates that should be charged for family loans to avoid tax complications.

Here are the rates for February 2017:

Maybe you just recently signed your estate planning documents. Maybe your documents have been sitting in a drawer or firebox, sight unseen, for five or more years. Either way, a common question is: When do I need to update my estate plan?