Paralysis because of tax-repeal possibility
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans would like to scrap the estate tax as part of their tax-reform package, but that shouldn’t lead to estate-planning paralysis.
“Most of the steps that minimize estate tax also protect assets from lawsuits, claims and even possibly divorce. So what difference does it make what they do with the estate tax?” said Martin Shenkman, an estate planning attorney at Shenkman Law.
Further, federal wealth transfer taxes have been enacted and repealed three times in U.S. history – so, even if the tax is repealed, it would likely come back at some point anyway, Mr. Shenkman said.
