Estate Planning and Administration After the 2026 Threshold Increases: What Changes, What Doesn’t, and What Clients Are Getting Wrong

With the federal estate and gift tax exemption now $15 million per person ($30 million per couple), indexed and no longer scheduled to sunset, the vast majority of clients will never owe a federal estate tax—and many of their existing plans were built for a world where they might. This session gives practitioners a clear framework for advising clients after the 2026 threshold increases: which legacy documents now do more harm than good, when a bypass trust or formula clause quietly disinherits a surviving spouse, and how the planning conversation shifts from tax avoidance to income tax basis, asset protection, blended-family control, and incapacity. Attorneys will leave knowing how to triage an existing plan, what to redraft, and how to explain the change to clients in plain terms.

Higher thresholds—federal and state—mean fewer estates require a tax return and more qualify for simplified procedures, but the shortcuts carry their own traps. This session walks through post-death administration in the new environment: when a small estate affidavit, muniment of title, or summary procedure is actually available and when it exposes heirs and counsel to liability; when a portability election is still worth filing for a non-taxable estate; and how fiduciaries should handle creditor exposure, title insurability, and beneficiary expectations. Drawing on a fiduciary litigation and mediation perspective, the session closes with the administration mistakes that most often turn into will contests and breach-of-fiduciary-duty claims—and how to prevent them.