ESTATE TAXES: Business Owners Make the Succession Plans Now

Have you made the plans to protect assets for your family after your death? Do you have currently or plan to in the immediate future to hold publically traded and/or closely held stock? It would probably be surprising to you to learn the stock you hold in either category if you answered yes to the second question is the leading asset classes for estate taxes according to the IRS 2016 estate tax statistics released in November.

I have stressed numerous times in previous postings that the only surety in life is that we all die and that even your death doesn’t prevent the government from taking another final dip into the assets you wish to leave behind for your family. If your estate range falls into the $5 to $10 million gross area or all the way to the top range of gross estate in excess of $50 million you have accounted now for 4,000 of the 5,219 taxable returns filed in 2016 or 76.6 percent if that helps more. That is staggering, and great for Uncle Sam, painful and issue though for your surviving heirs.

Now a secret, if you want to shrink the size of the hand that dips into your pocket while you await the hereafter. Make the steps to plan for your succession, if 40% of the business owners and investors were to create a functional succession plan for their family that would greatly increase the success of your continued legacy for family. Contact the professional at The Center (618) 997-3436 now and set up an appointment to plan the succession of the assets you worked hard to accumulate.