By Julie Malekhedayat, CPA, Principal
ASL Family Wealth and Individual Tax Planning Group
In planning their estates, married couples now have an option that could make it simpler for spouses to share their lifetime estate tax exemptions, or port from one spouse to the other, without the use of a traditional credit shelter trust in their estate plan. In recent years, lifetime exemptions have become even more valuable as the standard amounts have increased dramatically from $675,000 per taxpayer in 2000 to $5,450,000 each in 2016. Thus, a married couple now has a potential combined estate tax exemption of $10,900,000 to shelter their combined assets from estate tax at their deaths. But without proper planning, fully half of this amount could go unused, exposing the estate to estate taxes. (more…)