Paul O. Dillon, Attorney at Law

Estate Planning for Digital Wealth

Traditional business owners selling their companies upon retirement usually turn to their estate planning attorneys, accountants and wealth advisors to structure the sale and manage assets. However, today’s “cryptocurrency whale,” a person who has amassed wealth in cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets, is more likely to take a different approach, which often doesn’t end well.

The relatively young person with great digital wealth usually has gained their wealth relatively quickly through some risk-taking in a new asset class.  However, they don’t have the experience or knowledge of protecting wealth over time. The skills needed to create crypto wealth differ significantly from those required to preserve and protect wealth.

A recent article from CPA Practice Advisor, “How to Protect Your Digital Assets From Estate Tax,” explains the unique challenges of preserving digital assets. The regulatory environment is new and still developing, as are tax reporting and tracking rules. The anonymity of digital wealth can make estate planning complicated, not to mention the challenges for asset transfer upon death or incapacity.

There are three key threats to cryptocurrency wealth: estate taxes at death, lawsuits from creditors and predators and loss of access by poor management.

Cryptocurrency holdings could be subject to a 40% estate tax without solid estate planning. If predictions for the future value of Bitcoin hold true, for instance, heirs could potentially owe tens of millions or more in federal estate taxes. This would require the assets to be sold to pay for the taxes, depriving heirs of any future growth of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

One strategy for 2024 is to use the current lifetime gift tax exemptions to transfer as much as $13.61 million of assets expected to appreciate to a Nevada irrevocable third-party dynasty trust. Once the Bitcoin is in the trust, the value is removed from the taxable estate, and the asset won’t be taxable for hundreds of years. You’ll need to speak with an experienced estate planning attorney familiar with trusts to be sure this is created properly.

If you’re an active trader, it may make more sense to set up an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) to hold the cryptocurrency. By gifting the LLC interest to an irrevocable trust, you may be able to avoid estate taxes on the appreciated value of the cryptocurrency. If your crypto investment exceeds the federal gift tax exemption, your estate planning attorney may advise you to sell the excess amount to the trust for a long-term promissory note. This will keep the note’s face value in your estate but not the appreciation, giving heirs significant tax savings.

Trusts protect traditional assets from creditors, and digital assets can be protected in a similar fashion. By using an LLC and an asset protection trust and placing your LLC interest in the correct trust, you can shield assets from unforeseen creditors and predators. Note that this needs to be done before litigation or creditor action occurs.

Protecting assets with estate planning may seem like an old-school task for people whose wealth has come from the newest asset class. However, it’s a wise move. Talk with an estate planning attorney about the right strategies to protect wealth.

Reference: CPA Practice Advisor (July 16, 2024) “How to Protect Your Digital Assets From Estate Tax”

Can Estate Planning Reduce Inheritance Taxes?

If not renewed, the expiration of changes in estate and gift taxes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) on Dec. 31, 2025, will reduce federal estate tax exemptions to $7 million for individuals and $14 million for married couples. A recent article from CPA Practice Advisor, “A Crucial Window for Estate Planning: Preparing for 2026 Changes,” reminds us the IRS has said any benefits used under the current exemption are not subject to any “claw-backs.” In other words, use this tax advantage while you can.

It’s important to note the many benefits of estate planning are not just for wealthy people. The cohort referred to as “mid-affluent”—individuals and couples with or who will have significant assets and growth—should carefully plan for future tax exposure. Someone with $5 million in assets today could see their wealth grow to exceed the future exemption thresholds, making estate planning a vital means of protecting their wealth.

There are several techniques to minimize estate tax consequences, and your estate planning attorney will be able to identify the most appropriate for your unique situation.

Lifetime and Annual Gifting. Making gifts while living transfers wealth to the next generation while minimizing your estate’s tax exposure. Right now, you may gift $18,000 per person, or $36,000 per married couple, to as many people as you wish. Making these gifts annually allows you to reduce your taxable estate and enjoy seeing the recipients benefit from your gifts.

If you’d like to help someone with tuition or medical costs, you may pay any amount you wish without generating gift taxes as long as the payments are made directly to the educational institution or healthcare provider.

Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT). A SLAT is an irrevocable trust designed to benefit the spouse. Other family members can also be named as beneficiaries. The spouse has access to the income from the trust during their lifetime, and upon the spouse's death, the remainder can be distributed as per the grantor’s wishes.

Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs). These trusts are best in a low-interest rate environment. Assets are transferred to the trust, with the right to receive annuity payments for a set period, usually two to ten years. When the grantor dies, assets pass to designated beneficiaries.

Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGTs). No, they’re not broken. By creating an “intentionally defective” trust, the grantor splits the income tax responsibility from the estate and gift tax implications. The grantor pays the income taxes, allowing assets in the trust to grow tax-free.

There are more, including Qualified Personal Residence Trusts, Charitable Remainder Trusts, Charitable Lead Trusts, Dynasty Trusts and Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts.

If you expect the value of your taxable estate to come close to or exceed the future estate tax threshold, now is the time to discuss the various options with your estate planning attorney.

Reference: CPA Practice Advisor (June 13, 2024) “A Crucial Window for Estate Planning: Preparing for 2026 Changes”

Acting Now Before Historically High Estate Tax Exemption Sunsets

It’s unclear what the federal estate tax will look like after 2025, with the future of the exemption and many other provisions from the 2017 law provisions hinging on the outcome of the 2024 election. Given the uncertainty, a recent article from Bloomberg Tax Daily says succinctly, “Rich People Rush to Offload Wealth Before Estate Tax Break Drops.”

Estate planning attorneys advise clients impacted by the possible dramatic drop in the federal exemption to act now. Waiting until 2025 may lead to attorneys fully engaging with clients who began the process early and may not have time for latecomers.

Wealthy taxpayers have slowly started making gifts since 2018 to take advantage of the increased exemption, but estate planning attorneys have noted a significant uptick in activity. Planning for these gifts years before the sunset helps prevent “donor’s remorse” and ensures clients that their estate lawyers will have time for new returns, appraisals of assets and other associated tasks needed.

Last-minute plans could result in transferring too much or not the right assets, or they could leave parents without adequate assets to maintain their lifestyle.

The IRS published guidance in 2019 affirming that taxpayers can use the higher exemption amount and will not be penalized later if it changes. In other words, use or lose it.

To take advantage of the current exemption amount, several types of trusts should be considered. One of the most widely used is to create a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT). This allows the donor spouse to still receive benefits from the assets, since their partner now controls them. However, if there is a divorce or the beneficiary dies, the donor loses access.

Another option is a Dynasty Trust, which benefits future generations. A taxpayer could also put a business asset with continued appreciation in the trust and still pay the income tax, further lowering the value of their estate. As dynasty trusts are intended to be in place for numerous generations, they need to be designed by an experienced estate planning attorney to conform to the law and have some flexibility as well.

A common strategy is adding a trust protector who can modify the agreement. The donor chooses how the protector can alter the trust, which may be adding or removing beneficiaries or tweaking the trust based on future changes to the law.

Caution must be used while planning to use the elevated exemption before 2026. For instance, if gifting a property like a home they live in, people should think carefully before taking action. Planning must consider whether the assets gifted or placed in trusts will be needed in the coming years, especially if the family’s assets are just at or less than the elevated amount.

Reference: Bloomberg Tax Daily (Feb. 28, 2024) “Rich People Rush to Offload Wealth Before Estate Tax Break Drops”

How can Families Minimize or Avoid Estate Taxes?

The tax cuts of 2017 temporarily doubled the amount individuals could give away without paying taxes. However, those cuts are due to expire in 2026, pushing well-to-do Americans to move fast, says a recent article from The Wall Street Journal, “The Moves Wealthy Families are Making to Skirt Estate Taxes.” According to recently published stats from the Internal Revenue Service, wealth transfer began to escalate in 2021, with more than $182.6 billion given away. Nearly $100 billion went into trusts, some of which can last for generations. A total of roughly $14.8 went to charity.

For Americans with a net worth over $10 million, it’s urgent to consider a range of moves before these tax cuts expire. There are a number of options, from simple gifts to heirs to setting up complex dynasty trusts to protect wealth over generations. The macabre alternative is to die before these cuts expire.

The $10 million figure in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was indexed for inflation. For 2023, the combined gift and estate tax exemption is $12.9 million per individual, or $25.84 million per married couple. This is the amount you may give away during your life or at death tax-free.

Next year, the amount will be adjusted to $13.61 million. For 2025, it may be as high as $14 million per person. But in 2026, it will drop by half to about $7 million.

The tax cuts expire after December 31, 2025. Anyone facing an estate tax bill who hasn’t made any preparations will likely have a somber New Year's Eve.

A couple who transfers their full exemption amount of $28 million by 2025, before the law sunsets, will benefit from $5.6 million in tax savings, if they die in 2026. If they make a gift to grandchildren, skipping a generation, there would be nearly $9 million in tax savings.

These tax savings might become significantly larger over time. The appreciation is exempt from the transfer tax system when money grows in trusts. Therefore, if the trust value goes up to $100 million at the time of death, the family could save $40 million in estate taxes at the current 40% rate. This is just the federal tax savings. There are also state estate-tax savings in states like New York that continue to levy their own estate taxes.

According to UBS and Credit Suisse's global wealth report, about 1.5 million Americans have a $10 million to $50 million net worth, and nearly 125,000 worth even more.

Direct gifts of cash or securities are the simplest way to make gifts to reduce your estate. The limit on annual tax-free gifts is $17,000 for 2023. It is expected to increase to $18,000 in 2024. Anyone can make tax-free gifts of up to $17,000 to an unlimited number of people. These gifts don’t count against the larger $12.92 million combined gift and estate tax exemption. Gifts made over $17,000 require reporting to the IRS using Form 709.

Making gifts to a dynasty trust can preserve more wealth for children. The trust removes the assets from both your estate and your children’s estates, benefiting children, grandchildren, and future generations.

Trusts also offer asset protection. If assets are given to children directly, and they are sued or divorced, they could lose some or all of their assets. If gifts are made to a trust, it’s harder for a creditor to go after assets in the trust.

Do a careful analysis with your estate planning attorney before you design a gifting program. Make sure that you have enough to maintain your lifestyle. There are instances where people are so eager to gift their assets they don’t plan for the impact of inflation or volatile markets.

Reference: The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 19, 2023) “The Moves Wealthy Families are Making to Skirt Estate Taxes”

Can Trusts Help Create Wealth?

Trusts are the Swiss Army Knife of estate planning, perfect tools for specific directions on how your assets should be managed while you are living and after you have passed. A recent article titled “This Trust Can Help You Create a Financial Dynasty” from yahoo! finance explains how qualified perpetual trusts (also known as dynasty trusts) can offer more control over assets than other types of trusts.

What is a Dynasty Trust?

Called a Qualified Perpetual Trust or a Dynasty Trust, this trust is designed to let the grantor pass assets along to beneficiaries in perpetuity. Technically speaking, a dynasty trust could last for a century. They don’t end until several years after the death of the last surviving beneficiary.

Why Would You Want a Trust to Last 100 Years?

Perpetual trusts are often used to keep family wealth out of probate for a long time. During probate, the court reviews the will, approves the executor and reviews an inventory of assets. Probate can be time consuming and costly. the will and all the information it contains becomes part of the public record, meaning that anyone can find out all about your wealth.

A trust is created by an experienced estate planning attorney. Assets are then transferred into the trust and beneficiaries are named. There should be at least one beneficiary and a secondary beneficiary, in case the first beneficiary predeceases the second. A trustee is named to oversee the assets. The language of the trust is where you set the terms for when and how assets are to be distributed to beneficiaries.

Directions for the trust can be as specific as you wish. Terms may be set requiring certain goals, stages of life, or ages for beneficiaries to receive assets. This amount of control is part of the appeal of trusts. You can also set terms for when beneficiaries are not to receive anything from the trust.

Let’s say you have two adult children in their 30s. You could set a condition for them to receive monthly payments from trust earnings and nothing from the principal during their lifetimes. The next generation, your grandchildren, can be directed to receive only earnings as well, further preserving the trust principal and ensuring its future for generations to come.

Dynasty trusts are irrevocable, meaning that once assets are transferred, the transfer is permanent. Be certain that any assets going into the trust won’t be needed in the short or long run.

Be mindful if you chose to leave assets directly to grandchildren, skipping one generation, you risk the Generation Skipping Tax. There is no GST with a dynasty trust.

Assets in a trust are still subject to income tax, if they generate income. If you transfer assets creating little or no income, you can minimize this tax.

Not all states allow qualified perpetual trusts, while other states have used perpetual trusts to create a cottage industry for trusts. Your estate planning attorney will be able to advise the best perpetual trust for your situation.

Reference: yahoo! finance (July 12, 2022) “This Trust Can Help You Create a Financial Dynasty”

What Happens If a Trust Is Invalid?

Lessons about gifting, blended families, entity formalities, trusts and estate planning may all be found in the outcome of a tax case described in The Dallas Morning News’ article “The Smaldino case: Tax court opinion leads to estate planning angst.” The case involves gift taxes, and more particularly, a gift of LLC interest to a dynasty trust. The interest started out in the husband’s trust, transferred to the wife, who then transferred them to a dynasty trust, created to benefit some of the husband’s children from a prior marriage.

You may know that taxpayers are not required to report gifts between spouses. The husband’s gift to his spouse was, therefore, not reported to the IRS. The wife did report her gift to the IRS, but she didn’t need to pay any gift taxes because the reported value didn’t exceed her own lifetime gift tax exemption. Therefore, no gift taxes were due or paid on the transfer of the LLC interest to the trust.

The IRS assessed the husband a $1,154,000 gift tax deficiency, which was subsequently held up by the tax court. What was wrong?

The IRS and the tax court found a number of red flags. For starters, the wife held her LLC interest for only one day, before transferring it to the trust.

In testimony before the court, the wife said she had committed to transferring the shares to the trust even before she received the assignment of the shares. She clearly stated that she would have not changed her mind about transferring the assets, which were to benefit her stepchildren. Her timing was too hasty, however.

The husband, who was in control of the LLC, neglected to amend the LLC documents to reflect his wife’s owning an interest in the LLC. As a result, she was never recognized formally as a member of the LLC. The LLC documents made a clear distinction between the roles and duties of an assignee and a member. He executed the assignment of the interest, but she never became a member of the LLC.

The tax court also found a number of the corporate documents simply unbelievable. Several were undated. Others had an “effective date,” but lacked the date of signing.

One could say the IRS was being picky, but the IRS doesn’t have the ability to disregard documents, for two reasons. One is the doctrine of the tax court known as “substance over form.” The substance of a transaction, rather than the form it is presented in, determines the tax determination. The second is something families need to take seriously: when transactions involve family members, the IRS uses a fine-tooth comb to be sure transactions are legitimate.

When estate planning entities are created and transactions take place, consistency in actions is needed to demonstrate intent. All of the rules and practices must be followed, and when family members are involved, those involved must go above and beyond to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

An estate planning attorney with experience in creating LLCs, transferring interests and procedures required by the IRS, does more than create documents. He or she educates clients and explain how the transactions should be carried out to ensure that proper procedures are being followed. In this case, the mistakes far outweighed any benefits from the transaction.

Reference: The Dallas Morning News (Dec. 19, 2021) “The Smaldino case: Tax court opinion leads to estate planning angst”

What Is a Dynasty Trust?

Don’t be put off by the term “dynasty.” Just as every person has an estate, even if they don’t live in a million-dollar home, every person who owns assets could potentially have a dynasty trust, even if they don’t rule a continent. If you have assets that you wish to pass to others, you need an estate plan and you may also benefit from a dynasty trust, says this recent article from Kiplinger, “A Smart Option for Transferring Wealth Through Generations: The Dynasty Trust.”

When parents die, assets are typically transferred to their descendants. In most cases, the assets are transferred directly to the heirs, unless a trust has been created. Estate taxes must be paid, usually from the assets in the estate. Inheritances are divided according to the will, after the taxes have been paid, and go directly to the beneficiary, who does what they want with the assets.

If you leave assets outright to heirs, when the beneficiary dies, the assets are subject to estate taxes again. If assets are left to grandchildren, they are likely to incur another type of taxes, called Generation Skipping Transfer Taxes (GSTT). If you want your children to have an inheritance, you’ll need to do estate planning to minimize estate tax liability.

If you own a Family Limited Partnership (FLP) or a Limited Liability Company (LLC), own real estate or have a large equity portfolio, you may have the ability to use gifting and wealth transfer plans to provide for your family in the future. You may be able to do this without losing control of the assets.

The “dynasty trust,” named because it was once used by families like the DuPont’s and Fords, is created to transfer wealth from generation to generation without being subject to various gift, estate and/or GSTT taxes for as long as the assets remain in the trust, depending upon appliable state laws. A dynasty trust can also be used to protect assets from creditors, divorcing spouses and others seeking to make a claim against the assets.

Many people use an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) and transfer the assets free of the trust upon death. Most living trusts are transferred without benefit of being held within trusts.

A dynasty trust is usually created by the parents and can include any kind of asset—life insurance, securities, limited partnership interests, etc.—other than qualified retirement plans. The assets are held within the trust and when the grantor dies, the trust automatically subdivides into as many new trusts as the number of beneficiaries named in the trust. It’s also known as a “bloodline” trust.

Let’s say you have three children. The trust divides into three new trusts, dividing assets among the three. When those children die, the trust subdivides again for their children (grandchildren) in their own respective trusts and again, assets are divided into equal shares.

The trust offers broad powers for health, welfare, maintenance and support. The children can use the money as they wish, investing or taking it out. When created properly, the assets and growth are both protected from estate taxes. You’ll need a trustee and a co-trustee and an experienced estate planning attorney to draft and execute this plan.

Reference: Kiplinger (Oct. 2, 2021) “A Smart Option for Transferring Wealth Through Generations: The Dynasty Trust”

Why Should I Think About a Dynasty Trust?

A dynasty trust is a trust that lasts longer than one generation below that of the grantor. This trust can be a worthwhile estate planning tool for multi-generational families. Forbes’ recent article, “2 Reasons To Consider A Dynasty Trust” explains that dynasty trusts have two unique benefits that make them attractive.

Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax (GST) Exemption. According to the American Bar Association, the GST tax is imposed on asset transfers to grandchildren and more remote descendants that exceed the exemption limits. As a result, the transferor can’t avoid transfer taxes by "skipping" a generation. The GST is imposed, in addition to gift and estate taxes.

A person can give up to $11.4 million in assets (the GST tax-exempt amount) to a trust in 2019. Trust assets are protected from transfer taxation for as long as the trust document and state law permit it. A dynasty trust uses the federal GST tax exemption by taking family wealth out of the transfer tax system for as long as the trust is in existence; income and principal is used to benefit each succeeding generation.

An additional benefit is that the GST tax exemption can often be extended, by transferring assets subject to valuation discounts.

Grantor Trusts Provide More Tax Benefits. In most cases, grantor trusts treat the trust creator as the owner of the trust assets for income tax purposes. This allows the trust principal to grow free of income tax. Creating the trust as a grantor trust adds another level of tax benefit to a dynasty trust.

The estate planning benefits of the asset transfer are increased by the grantor making the income tax payments instead of the trust. In other words, the assets in the trust aren’t reduced by income taxes. Any income taxes paid by the grantor reduce the size of the grantor’s overall taxable estate when calculating estate taxes.

There are a number of strategies a person can implement using dynasty trusts. You can discuss all your choices with an experienced estate planning attorney.

Reference: Forbes (July 23, 2019) “2 Reasons To Consider A Dynasty Trust”