Preservation | Family Wealth Protection & Planning

The past few years have seen a period of historically low interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has made multiple increases to the federal funds rate that have resulted in interest rate increases across the board. This will affect estate and wealth-transfer strategies in 2023 and beyond, as “we will likely see a shift from strategies that are more effective in a low-interest rate environment, to planning ideas that may benefit from higher rates,” writes Greensfelder Officer Keith Grissom for Rethinking65.

Wolters Kluwer and Bloomberg Tax have released projected 2023 figures for the gift tax annual exclusion amount as well as the estate and gift tax lifetime exemption amount. These figures were determined using formulas contained in the Internal Revenue Code. They are based on the increase in the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) for the 12-month period that ended August 31, 2022.

The June 2022 decision by the Federal Reserve to raise the federal funds rate by 0.75 percent marks the largest such increase in 28 years. Among the many areas this move will affect are estate and wealth transfer planning, as many common strategies have an interest component that can have a significant impact on the success of the strategy.

The latest text of the proposed reconciliation bill, titled the Build Back Better Act, published on October 28, 2021, is void of many of the prior proposed tax changes that would have upended estate planning. Changes that were included in the earlier version of the bill but not in this most recent version include:

Wolters Kluwer has released projected 2022 figures for the gift tax annual exclusion amount as well as the estate and gift tax lifetime exemption amount. These figures were determined by Wolters Kluwer using formulas contained in the Internal Revenue Code. They are based on the increase in the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) for the 12-month period that ended August 31, 2021.

On September 28, 2021, the House Budget Committee released a report that provides explanations with respect to certain provisions included in the proposed House bill called the Build Back Better Act (the “Report”).

On Monday, September 13, 2021, the House Ways and Means Committee released the text for proposed tax changes to be incorporated in a budget reconciliation bill called the Build Back Better Act (the “Act”). The 881-page text includes several significant changes to income and transfer taxes that could drastically change estate, gift and individual income tax planning if made into law.

This is the sixth installment in a blog series on opportunities for tax planning in the current low-interest rate environment. Read our previous installments here. The next post will conclude the series with a discussion of charitable giving.

This is the fifth installment in a blog series on opportunities for tax planning in the current low-interest rate environment. Read our previous installments here. Future installments will cover installment sales to defective grantor trusts and charitable giving.

This is the fourth installment in a blog series on opportunities for tax planning in the current low-interest rate environment. Read our previous installments here. Future installments will cover family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, installment sales to defective grantor trusts, and charitable giving.