Obama Administration’s Budget Proposal Could Impact Estate Planning

The Obama administration’s proposed budget contains changes that would affect estate planning if enacted:

• One proposal requires additional valuation and reporting requirements for gifts made during life and at death to make sure that gifts are not undervalued.
• The proposed budget calls for treasury regulations that will ignore certain restrictions on family-owned entities for purposes of valuation.
• Finally, grantor retained annuity trusts would have to be last at least ten years, making them less attractive for older taxpayers. 

See Robert Powell, 3 Estate Planning Changes Coming Your Way, MarketWatch, Feb. 5, 2010.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.