Video Transcript
Ask the Attorney 9: How does estate planning differ for individuals of
different income levels?
Brian Chew: I think when it comes to estate planning, there isn't as much difference as
far as how we devise estate plan based on income or asset levels. Whether an estate's
worth a hundred thousand or a million or 10 million, to some extent, the estate plan is
very similar. Especially if a married couple with house and kids, the plan is going to be
something along the lines if one spouse passes, nothing happens. Both spouse passes,
everything goes to the kids at a specific age, and then we're going to assign somebody
to be in charge of the assets and/or the kids. Those things are really independent of
what level income you have or what assets you have.
Now, once you start getting into the estate tax range, current number in 2024 is 13.6
million of assets for an individual or close to $27 million for a married couple, then we
might have a little different conversation. The estate plan, as far as the revocable trust
that we designed for our clients, probably doesn't change very much. It's not so much
that we're going to change the trust so much as we're going to do additional things
outside of the revocable trust.
