Duluth Georgia Estate Planning Legal Blog

People in Georgia may be wondering about the best way to handle their charitable giving through their estate planning after the changes to federal estate taxes implemented following the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Historically, bequests to charities have been exempt from federal estate taxes, helping these philanthropic gifts to be even more appealing to donors whose heirs faced tax burdens on the remainder of their estate. As part of the changes to tax law, however, the individual exemption to estate taxes has doubled, from $5.49 million per person to $11.18 million.

Today, this means that 99.8 percent of Americans will leave behind estates that are not subject to federal taxation, meaning that estate taxes are far less likely to be a factor when making an estate plan that includes charitable giving. However, these gifts also reflect social values and priorities and are unlikely to suffer an overall decline following the changes.

Just as it is important to plan for retirement, it is possibly even more important that people in the Georgia area carefully plan for the manner in which their estates will be handled upon their death. While there is no question that provisions should be made for minor children to ensure that someone is appointed to administer the estate to take care of them, all too often adult children are entrusted with more than they are capable of handling responsibly.

While reaching the age of adulthood often means that a person has become financially responsible, it is not always true for everyone. In fact, many mature, intelligent people lack money-management skills. Fortunately, such persons usually entrust their assets to money managers or financial advisors. Unfortunately, others do not.

For business owners in Georgia and across the United States, estate planning is particularly important. While wills and trusts are frequently considered in people's personal lives, in many cases, businesses do not receive the estate planning attention that they need to thrive after a principal's passing. Business estate planning can help to reduce estate taxes, deal with a sole proprietorship and transfer a business through a buy-sell agreement.

Digital assets are one of the more complex areas of estate planning for both personal and business contexts. While the law is clear in regard to physical property and paper documents, digital technology can seem less clear and more confusing. For example, only 39 states have passed a law that allows people to specify a designated executor to access their email and other social media profiles. Without such a law, the company holding the data can determine who can access a person's account after death.

Georgia residents who want to leave part of their estate to their favorite charities may consider using a charitable trust. One of the many advantages of doing so is that it can provide tax benefits for the donors. As the name implies, charitable trusts are created for a charitable purpose. According to Uniform Trust Code Section 405, the charitable purpose may be related to the propagation of religion or education, relieving poverty, encouraging health, fulfilling municipal or governmental purposes or any task geared toward benefiting the community.