Whitney Drechsler, JD, is an advanced planning consultant at Commonwealth Financial Network®, member FINRA/SIPC, the nation's largest privately held Registered Investment Adviser–independent broker/dealer. With the firm since August 2015, she assists affiliated advisors with financial planning for their clients, including estate planning, high-net-worth strategies, and charitable planning. Whitney earned her BBA in legal studies, with a minor in art history, from the University of Miami. She also attended Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where she earned her JD and LLM in international tax and financial services with a certification in wealth management.
Estate planning with intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs)—despite the name—has many advantages. In fact, this well-established technique isn’t defective at all; the term “defective” describes the effect of income taxation rules on these instruments. Here, we’ll discuss the ins and outs of IDGTs, including how they can be very tax “effective” for estate tax purposes.
As a small business owner and/or a financial advisor to small business owners, it is imperative for you to be informed regarding changes to pass-through business taxation under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Some of the provisions are complex and will require you to use the appropriate calculators, as well as to seek advice from a tax counselor or tax preparer. So, to help you lay the groundwork for understanding these changes, let’s take a deeper dive into what’s new for pass-through business taxation under the TCJA, as well as some planning opportunities for you and your clients.