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.
