In preparing for the upcoming year, we think now is a great time to create a specific plan to assist you with protection-based planning. First, let’s start with the obvious. Clients who are worth at least $10 million today could be significantly impacted by the estate tax sunset that is looming on Jan. 1, 2026. On this date, legislation is set to cut the exemption in half. This will also impact what gifts can be made while living. We have created custom “use it or lose it” reports that illustrate the growth of an estate and then the effect of making gifts outside of the estate now as opposed to doing nothing.
Moving on to the business owner market, requests to service business owners with their succession plans continue to rise year over year. If you have business owners in your book of business, now is a great time to be proactive with their protection planning needs versus reacting to them when they ask for help.
Three key areas to focus on are:
- Buy-sell planning for multi-owner businesses
- Key person business protection planning
- Key employee retention planning
In this edition of the newsletter, we share our business owner conversation guide which will help guide you during your important business owner client conversations.