When you plan your estate, you make conscious decisions about the way that your monetary assets will be transferred after you are gone. A lot of people think that estate planning boils down to the creation of a will, but there are other ways to transfer assets.
Personalized Planning
There are different approaches that can be taken, and the right way to proceed will depend on the circumstances. For example, let’s say that you have someone with a disability on your inheritance list, and they rely on Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income.
These are need-based programs, so a beneficiary can lose eligibility if they come into money. This is a very important factor to consider if you will be leaving an inheritance to someone that is in this position.
A supplemental needs trust is the solution. When this type of trust is established and funded, the trustee can use the assets to make the beneficiary more comfortable in many ways. However, if everything is done correctly, benefit eligibility will not be impacted.
Another possibility is the incentive trust. With this type of trust, you include stipulations that must be met before the beneficiary will receive distributions. You can guide a young person toward personal development or incentivize substance abuse recovery.
High net worth individuals have to be concerned about the potential impact of estate taxes. There is a federal estate tax, and here in Connecticut, we have a state-level estate tax to contend with as well.
The exclusion is an amount that cab be transferred tax-free before the rest of the estate would be subject to taxation. On the federal level, the exclusion is $12.06 million this year, and the Connecticut state estate tax exclusion is Upcoming Estate Planning Seminars.
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- Do Trusts Pay Taxes on Capital Gains? - July 9, 2026
- How Does a Trust Differ From a Will? - July 7, 2026
An Overview of the Probate Process
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