Effective January 1, 2018, the new federal estate tax exemption amount
was increased to $11,200,000 per person. That means a husband and wife
can leave combined assets of $22,400,000 without paying any federal estate
tax. Nowadays, a person who has to be concerned about federal estate taxes
is part of the 1/10 of 1%, as far as assets go. While federal estate taxes
are generally not a concern for most clients, the other aspects of estate
planning become even more important since taking steps to minimize or
eliminate estate tax is no longer an important issue.
