Wealthyist E80 | Turning The Page: Roth, State & Local Taxes, and the Moves That Matter Before 2026 Ends

So, Jenny, writing this tax guide, naturally, that's not the only thing that we do.

And it's also just a small portion of the overall planning.

So when you're taking into effect the financial plan, the investments, the tax plan, the estate plan, this is a piece of that.

But all of this ties together.

So when we're looking at what we're doing tax planning throughout the year, we're also going to look at investments.

Where are we pulling that for donor advised funds or QCDs? When we're looking at the tax plan, how does that tie into the overall estate plan? And then additionally, when you're talking about some of the things that we're going to bring up here in the podcast, when you're looking at the tax plan, we're also tying that back to the financial plan and not only what's happening this year, but for the next five years, for the next 10 years and 20 years from now.

Yeah, that's exactly correct.

And something that we do here at Annex that is really great.

I definitely enjoy it.

I'm one of those tax nerds.

We create pro forma tax plans.

So it's almost as if we're creating a mock up of a client's 2026 tax picture, projecting out all of their income to determine what exactly is the landscape for this year and what kind of opportunities are presenting themselves.

High net worth families, we now have 15 million per person of estate tax exemption.

That one is kind of what I was referring to with we're now not backing up to are the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act going to sunset? Are we going to have this lifetime estate exemption reduced? Overall, that's catered into a lot of the planning that we're doing.

It's also removed a lot of those families from stressing about, are we going to pay 40% estate taxes on a large portion of our assets? Nobody likes that.

Nobody wants that.

So we're always planning ahead of time.

But as far as the use it or lose it, gift it away, use that $19,000 gift exemption per year per person, what are you seeing currently this year? Is that...

more so of a planning opportunity or is that kind of fallen by the wayside where less families are giving that $19,000 because we don't have to worry about that estate tax exemption?

Yeah, I would say it really depends on your overall net worth.

So like you mentioned, with that $30 million joint for a married filing jointly couple exemption, a lot of people aren't going to face estate tax.

But if your estate is projected to be in excess of that $30 million, lifetime gifting can still be a great option or also the concept of a living legacy.

So the idea with that is you're giving funds away during life when people may often need it more.

maybe your kids or grandkids could use the funds a little bit more now rather than waiting until they're 50, 60 years old inheriting those funds.

I've been seeing a trend of that substantially actually recently when we're talking about once clients start reaching or people start reaching that age of 75, 80, 85 years old and they start looking at the portfolio and if it's $10, $15, $20 million, it's growing substantially each year if naturally the market is up.

So, Jenny, writing this tax guide, naturally, that's not the only thing that we do.

And it's also just a small portion of the overall planning.

So when you're taking into effect the financial plan, the investments, the tax plan, the estate plan, this is a piece of that.

But all of this ties together.

So when we're looking at what we're doing tax planning throughout the year, we're also going to look at investments.

Where are we pulling that for donor advised funds or QCDs? When we're looking at the tax plan, how does that tie into the overall estate plan? And then additionally, when you're talking about some of the things that we're going to bring up here in the podcast, when you're looking at the tax plan, we're also tying that back to the financial plan and not only what's happening this year, but for the next five years, for the next 10 years and 20 years from now.

Yeah, that's exactly correct.

And something that we do here at Annex that is really great.

I definitely enjoy it.

I'm one of those tax nerds.

We create pro forma tax plans.

So it's almost as if we're creating a mock up of a client's 2026 tax picture, projecting out all of their income to determine what exactly is the landscape for this year and what kind of opportunities are presenting themselves.

High net worth families, we now have 15 million per person of estate tax exemption.

That one is kind of what I was referring to with we're now not backing up to are the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act going to sunset? Are we going to have this lifetime estate exemption reduced? Overall, that's catered into a lot of the planning that we're doing.

It's also removed a lot of those families from stressing about, are we going to pay 40% estate taxes on a large portion of our assets? Nobody likes that.

Nobody wants that.

So we're always planning ahead of time.

But as far as the use it or lose it, gift it away, use that $19,000 gift exemption per year per person, what are you seeing currently this year? Is that...

more so of a planning opportunity or is that kind of fallen by the wayside where less families are giving that $19,000 because we don't have to worry about that estate tax exemption?

Yeah, I would say it really depends on your overall net worth.

So like you mentioned, with that $30 million joint for a married filing jointly couple exemption, a lot of people aren't going to face estate tax.

But if your estate is projected to be in excess of that $30 million, lifetime gifting can still be a great option or also the concept of a living legacy.

So the idea with that is you're giving funds away during life when people may often need it more.

maybe your kids or grandkids could use the funds a little bit more now rather than waiting until they're 50, 60 years old inheriting those funds.

I've been seeing a trend of that substantially actually recently when we're talking about once clients start reaching or people start reaching that age of 75, 80, 85 years old and they start looking at the portfolio and if it's $10, $15, $20 million, it's growing substantially each year if naturally the market is up.