The urgency is gone but the opportunity isn’t
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law on July 4, 2025, permanently raised the federal estate and gift tax exemption to $15 million per individual—$30 million for married couples—with annual inflation adjustments going forward. The scheduled rollback was eliminated entirely. For high and ultra-high-net-worth families, this is one of the most favorable estate planning environments in modern history.
What it means for your plan
If you moved quickly in 2024 or early 2025 to make large gifts before the anticipated sunset, your planning remains valid and you may have additional exemption capacity to work with under the new law. If you held back, the window didn’t close. It widened.
Consider what’s now available to a married couple coordinating their planning:
- Up to $30 million in combined exemption capacity
- Dynasty trusts — Designed to preserve wealth across multiple generations while minimizing transfer taxes, they are particularly well suited to this environment. A dynasty trust funded at today’s values can compound outside your taxable estate across decades
- GRATs, SLATs and IDGTs — Each designed to pass appreciation and future growth to heirs in a tax-conscious structure—all become more powerful at the $15 million threshold
The one thing “permanent” doesn’t mean
In tax law, “permanent” means until Congress changes it. The same exemption that was doubled in 2017 and made permanent in 2025 can be revised by a future administration. The most resilient estate plans are those built now—while the environment is favorable—not when the next legislative cycle introduces new uncertainty.
A year after the law passed, the families who are in a strong position are the ones who’ve already had the conversation.
Read more in the Summer 2026 edition of the Investor's Edge >