Strategic Gift And Estate Tax Planning: Maximizing The Value Of Your Legacy

Estate and gift tax planning is a crucial part of estate planning, especially for high-net-worth individuals. These taxes can significantly reduce the value of your estate. With the right strategies, you can minimize these tax burdens to preserve more of your wealth for your loved ones.

Our team can help. At the Law Offices of Berge & Berge in San Jose, we focus exclusively on estate and elder law. Our lead attorney, James Berge, has over 25 years of experience. He holds an advanced degree (LL.M) in tax law and board certification in estate planning, trust and probate law through the California Board of Legal Specialization. These credentials make us uniquely qualified to address complex tax issues that impact high-value estates.

Tools For Effective Tax Planning

Estate and gift taxes can affect your legacy in a big way. They may apply to the transfer of wealth during your lifetime and after death. Our attorneys can help you with strategies to minimize these taxes, such as:

• Unified credit planning: Utilizing your lifetime exemption to shield assets from federal estate taxes
• Marital deduction planning: Maximizing the unlimited marital deduction to defer estate taxes until the second spouse’s death
• Annual exclusion gifts: Making use of annual gift tax exclusions to reduce your taxable estate
• Leveraged lifetime gifts: Using tools like trusts to maximize the impact of your gifting
• Life insurance trusts: Creating irrevocable trusts to exclude life insurance proceeds from your taxable estate
• Charitable giving: Reducing your taxable estate through charitable donations while supporting causes important to you.
• Irrevocable trusts: Transferring assets out of your taxable estate while still providing for your heirs
• Family limited partnerships: Managing family assets to avoid inheritance taxes through a strategic business entity
• Qualified personal residence trusts: Transferring your home into a trust to take advantage of tax benefits
• Property tax planning: Using strategies to avoid reassessment and ensure the efficient transfer of real estate to beneficiaries
• Dynasty trusts: Establishing long-term trusts to benefit multiple generations without additional estate taxes

Our lawyers understand gift and estate taxes (federal and state) in all their intricacies. They can help you craft a strategy that aligns with your needs, vision and legacy.