For years, the conversation about passing on wealth was shaped by a single, pressing question: Will the exemption sunset? That urgency is behind us. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, permanently set the federal estate and gift tax exemption at $15 million per individual ($30 million for married couples), with no expiration date.1 With the framework settled, the more meaningful question has arrived: not when to act, but why to act now, while you are here to see it. There Is Something Irreplaceable About Giving While You Are Living. Wealth transferred at death is generous. Wealth shared during your lifetime is something else entirely. You get to see it arrive. You watch a grandchild start college, a daughter launch her business, a cause you believe in grow. That is not a small thing. Giving while living also allows you to be intentional in real time. You can direct resources where they are needed most, adjust as circumstances change, and stay involved in the decisions that matter to you. A gift made at death is fixed. A gift made today is a conversation. A Few Ways Lifetime Gifting Works. How you give matters as much as how much you give. Several approaches are worth understanding as you think through what a lifetime gifting strategy might look like for your family. Annual gifting is the simplest starting point. The annual gift tax exclusion allows you to give up to $19,000 per recipient in 2026 ($38,000 for married couples) without touching your lifetime exemption.1 Donating appreciated assets, such as long-term stock holdings, can be more efficient than donating cash. When you donate appreciated securities directly to a charity or donor-advised fund, you may avoid capital gains on the appreciation while also potentially receiving a charitable deduction. Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) allow individuals age 70½ or older to transfer funds directly from an IRA to a qualified charity, potentially satisfying required minimum distributions without those amounts being counted as taxable income. Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) let you make a charitable contribution, take a potential tax deduction in the year of the gift, and then recommend grants to specific charities over time. This approach can be especially useful when you want to give meaningfully but have not yet decided exactly where. Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs) offer a structure that can provide income to you or your family during your lifetime, with the remainder going to a charity of your choice. There are different trust structures, and each carries its own rules around distributions and contributions. Now Is a Good Time to Look at the Whole Picture. With a permanent exemption in place and no sunset clock running, there is space now to think clearly rather than reactively. Whether you have not yet started this conversation or revisited it since the law changed, it is worth a fresh look. Coordinating a lifetime gifting approach involves your broader financial picture, and it works best when your financial professional, your tax advisor, and your legal counsel are all part of the same conversation. I can help bring that picture together and make sure the right people are at the table. If you would like to talk through how lifetime gifting might fit into what you already have in place, reach out. |
1. Nelson Mullins, February, 2026 |
The Gift of Giving Now
