Estate tax exemptions, GRATs, step-up-in-basis planning, and the wealth-transfer moves that decide what you keep and what passes on.
Elon Musk has pledged more than 236 million Tesla shares to banks. Carl Icahn carried a $1.2 billion loan and paid $0 federal income tax in two separate years. This is the buy, borrow, die tax strategy, how it works, the IRC §1014 step-up that makes it permanent, and what the 2026 law and Moore v. United States changed.
Read postWeeks before Facebook went public, co-founder Eduardo Saverin gave up his US passport and moved his roughly 4% stake to Singapore. The move drew a Senate bill named after him and saved a reported nine figures in future US tax. Here is how the exit tax for renouncing US citizenship works under IRC §877A, who counts as a covered expatriate at the 2026 numbers, and why the date you leave decides the bill.
Read postAudrey Walton put $200 million of Walmart stock into two GRATs and reported a $0 taxable gift. The Tax Court blessed it, and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson later moved $7.9 billion to his heirs the same way. Here is how the grantor retained annuity trust estate tax strategy works, the Walton case that made it bulletproof, and what a zeroed-out GRAT saves at the 2026 numbers.
Read postDonald Trump claimed a $21.1 million charitable deduction for a conservation easement on land he kept. The strategy is legal, but the fight is always about the appraised number. Here is how the conservation easement tax deduction works, what the §170(h)(7) crackdown changed, and how the 2026 charitable rules shift the math.
Read postThe estate exemption, the step-up in basis, and a well-timed trust decide how much of an estate reaches the next generation instead of the IRS. These moves reward planning made years ahead, not a signature in the final month. We model the transfer, structure the trust, and file the returns, so the wealth passes on the terms you set.