Editor's note: This essay was originally published September 2024. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, subsequently made the higher estate exemption permanent at $15 million per person beginning January 1, 2026. We are leaving the original 2024 analysis intact for the historical record because the planning archetypes, and the regret patterns we now see, remain instructive.
For three years our trust and estate practice has built modeling worksheets around January 1, 2026. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ³ increased the basic estate and gift tax exclusion to roughly $13.99 million per person for 2025, but absent legislative action, that exclusion will sunset at the end of 2025 and revert to the pre-TCJA $5 million baseline indexed for inflation, approximately $6.8 million per person on January 1, 2026. ¹
For clients with estates between $7 million and $30 million, the looming cliff is the defining planning event of the decade.
You've read the first three minutes.
The rest is free. Verify your email to continue.
We send a six-digit code to your inbox. Enter the code below to unlock the full essay and every other essay in the archive. The Journal arrives quarterly. Nothing else.
