A, B, C’s of Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts

The reflex to push assets into an irrevocable trust to beat the estate-tax sunset no longer holds — Congress made the roughly $15 million exemption permanent for 2026, and the revocable-versus-irrevocable decision now turns on Medicaid eligibility, basis step-up, and asset protection rather than a closing window.

As clients age into the five-year lookback and long-term care costs climb, Medicaid asset protection planning has only intensified, even while the estate-tax rationale that drove SLATs and aggressive gifting recedes. Attorneys still working from sunset-era templates risk recommending irrevocable structures that surrender step-up and flexibility for a tax benefit most clients no longer need.

This program compares the two structures across flexibility, tax treatment, and asset protection, weighs joint revocable trusts against his-and-hers arrangements, drafts Medicaid asset protection trusts, SLATs, ILITs, and special needs trusts, and works through EIN requirements, the four phases of administration, and the drafting that defeats contests and shields fiduciaries. Attendees leave able to match structure to client and draft administration-ready irrevocable trusts that hold up.