With the 2020 election right around the corner, the United States may be on the precipice of another major tax regime overhaul. Just as quickly as President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) brought the estate and gift tax exemption to its all-time high, the election of Joe Biden and a swing to a Democrat-controlled Senate could push the exemption back to pre-2017 levels, or perhaps even lower.

With this potential change in mind, high-net-worth individuals are encouraged to take time to speak with their estate planning attorney and examine whether it would be desirable to utilize their remaining exemption during the 2020 tax year. Moreover, with the potential that any tax law changes passed next year could have a retroactive effective date of January 1, 2021, it is important that these discussions take place as soon as possible. Put simply, high-net-worth individuals who wish to “lock in” the use of their exemption should be prepared to do so by December 31, 2020, or they could potentially lose out on millions of dollars of estate and gift tax savings.

Alex Wolf and Nate Patterson discuss in more detail in the article linked below. 

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