Tax, Estate Planning Season Appears Less Fraught; Uncertainties Linger

Tom Burroughes

19 March 2026

With federal income tax filing required by April 15, advisors are flat-out helping citizens get details in order. For once, some of the uncertainties around estate and gift taxes aren’t in play.

But while such federal legislation has ended uncertainties on one level, there’s a potential wealth tax coming from California, if the state’s voters approve – potentially causing a further outflow of HNW and ultra-HNW individuals from the state.

Since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed, it removed the risk that post-2017 hikes to thresholds for estate and gift taxes by the first Trump administration would be removed, forcing affected HNW citizens to reconstruct their finances. There was one notable change: As of January 1, 2026, the exemption will be $15 million per individual , indexed for inflation for subsequent years, but the tax rate remains at 40 per cent.

There have been changes but in broad terms, the landscape appears relatively settled . With advisors often counseling clients not to let the "tax" tail wag the "investment" dog, it seems that such activity is not as likely this time around.

“There is a notable shift in how families are planning under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Families have realized it is not possible to react daily, in some instances, to potential policy changes, and have become more focused on their own financial situation and entity structures,” Kathleen Grace, CEO and founder of Fiduciary Family Office, told FWR in a recent interview.

“There is meaningful discussion around managing portfolios with significant embedded gain. For some families, this becomes an opportunity to think proactively about whether charitable gifting of highly appreciated stock fits into their broader planning and values, especially as they look to reduce concentration and align giving with their long-term family legacy goals,” she said.

“Tax season provides an opportunity to organize a family’s financial life and often exposes whether their financial life is well-organized or fragmented,” Grace continued. “When documents, entity records, and reporting are sent from different institutions, even routine filing can feel overwhelming. Families increasingly need assistance to oversee the process, coordinate the various entity reporting timelines, centralize information, and receive clear, concise communication.”

Brittany Cook, co-head of AlTi Tiedemann Global’s wealth planning team, told this news service that a benefit of the OBBBA is that, by ending some of the uncertainties around estate and gift tax thresholds, for example, it has given clients more certainty.

“This time around we are seeing people leaning into the purpose of wealth and half of our conversations in fact have nothing to do with wealth in the traditional understanding of it,” Cook said.

Changes
"The OBBBA has created many new deductions, including several deductions that don’t require taxpayers to itemize their deductions. Common examples of new deductions available for those who do not itemize include the Enhanced Deduction for Seniors, often known as the `Seniors Deduction,' and the deduction for interest paid on a loan used to buy a qualifying new vehicle," Brian Schultz, CPA and leader of the Plante Moran Wealth Management tax practice, told FWR. "In terms of itemized deductions, a significant OBBBA change was the increase of the SALT deduction from a maximum of $10K pre-OBBBA to a new $40,000 maximum."

"The deductions mentioned above are all OBBBA changes to the tax law that were retroactive to January 1, 2025 for most individuals," he said.

FWR asked Schultz what uncertainties remain.

"Almost all of the deductions created by the OBBBA have income phaseouts, and these phaseouts begin and end at different levels of income. This can make tax planning more complicated with a greater chance of unintended tax consequences for making certain financial decisions," he said. "For instance, selling a stock at a capital gain might also cause a taxpayer to lose a portion of the deduction for interest on their car loan if their income is within the phaseout range for the interest deduction. One could view that loss of interest expense deduction as an additional tax incurred from selling their stock at a gain."

California worries
FWR asked Cook of AITi Tiedemann Global about whether a mooted wealth tax in California was causing clients to ask for meetings.

“We have had some clients ask us about it,” she said. “It has been on the radar for years and we will see what happens.”

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good, Anthony Belloli, CEO of Plante Moran Trust, explained the kind of mistakes that people make. A significant error is not acting, he said.

“Many couples don’t know where to start, feel they lack the time, or avoid the emotional difficulty of making estate-planning decisions, which often leads to costly delays.

“I encourage clients to start with an imperfect plan and think of it as an emergency plan rather than a final one, because an imperfect plan is far better than no plan at all and can usually be amended easily over time. An initial plan is often 80 per cent or more of what is ultimately needed, with refinements made as circumstances evolve. Another major mistake is not choosing the right financial advisor or not fully understanding how that advisor is compensated, as many couples say their advisor has 'done well’ without truly understanding costs, performance relative to the market, or broader planning beyond investments.

“Working with a trusted, proactive advisor who is transparent about fees and has access to lower-cost, institutional-quality investment managers can make a meaningful difference over time, since reducing investment costs by even 0.20 per cent to 0.50 per cent can have a powerful compounding impact on long-term wealth.”

Trust jurisdictions
The US has several states, such as South Dakota, Delaware and New Hampshire that provide trusts that taxpayers can use. Some states have clamped down on the use of out-of-state trusts. FWR asked Belloli about this evolving landscape.

“While states such as South Dakota and Delaware do offer certain trust advantages, those benefits are often overstated in practice,” Belloli said. “Many of the perceived advantages are highly nuanced and tend to apply only in very specific circumstances, frequently involving extremely large trusts. Many other states –including Michigan and Illinois – are also very trust-friendly and may offer strong creditor protection, no rule against perpetuities, and options such as silent trusts.

“From an income tax perspective, states with no state income tax can appear attractive, but that benefit is often limited, as many estate-planning trusts are grantor trusts and therefore are not taxed at the trust level regardless of location. Even for non-grantor trusts, alternatives such as Florida – which has no state income tax and does not require a trustee to be located there – are often overlooked, and states like Michigan or Illinois typically only tax trusts in specific circumstances, such as when the trust holds in-state real estate or the grantor was a resident when the trust became irrevocable. Ultimately, there is no single 'best’ trust jurisdiction; the right choice depends on the size, structure, and purpose of the trust.”

Top of mind
FWR asked Fiduciary Family Office’s Grace what sort of topics most concern clients.

“The most common request is for assistance in managing complexity, rather than solving for any single outcome.

“While we are not providing tax or legal advice, trust and entity structures are frequent discussion points from a legacy perspective. Many families have built layers over time, such as trusts, partnerships, philanthropic vehicles, each created for a specific purpose, often at different stages of the family’s evolution.

What prompts these conversations is less about new rules, and more about where complexity comes from. As a family evolves through its own life changes, whether it be the birth of grandchildren or other shifts, the complexity of their situation continues to increase. Tax season tends to be the moment when families see all of those structures side by side and recognize how laborious the process truly is. They need a simple format of everything they own in order to better understand their situation.”

Cook reflected on the mistakes that can cause problems.

“Common oversights include outdated documentation, incomplete entity records, or strategies and expectations that are not aligned. Understanding and defining client expectations upfront enables efficient execution,” she added.