What are my options for minimizing my federal estate tax?

The good news is that most people don’t have to worry about estate taxes these days. In fact, less than one percent of the population does. If you have less than $5.43 million in your estate as a single person, or $10.68 million as a married couple, estate tax is not going to affect you.

However, if you find yourself in a situation where you’re above those numbers, or, perhaps, expect that you might be in the future, there are a number of techniques that can be used to minimize the effect of estate taxes. For example, irrevocable life insurance trusts are a very effective solution. Also, charitable gift planning provides an opportunity to not only minimize estate taxes but also do a lot of good. Finally, irrevocable trusts can be a very powerful tool for removing assets from an estate, particularly those that might experience rapid appreciation in the future. Those are some of the many methods that we use to minimize the impact of estate taxes.