As a financial advisor, the number that still stops me is this one: only 32% of U.S. adults have created a will.1 Adoption climbs steadily with age and income, and 83% of upper-income adults ages 70 and older report having one, so affluent families do get it done eventually.1
Eventually is the problem.
The decades spent building a business, buying property, and raising children are the decades when an unexpected illness or early death would cost a family the most, and they’re the decades most likely to pass without a signed plan in place.
I understand how it happens. The work weeks are long, the subject is unpleasant, and a $15 million federal exemption with no sunset scheduled under current law makes the estate-tax side of planning easy to push to next year.
Even then, creating a will is a low bar. A will does not avoid probate or operate during incapacity, and it generally does not override valid beneficiary designations. A will can contain sophisticated trust and tax provisions, but a basic will is still only one component of a coordinated estate plan.
Common Components of a Coordinated Estate Plan
A Will
Directs probate assets, nominates a personal representative, and may create testamentary trusts.12
A Revocable Living Trust
A properly funded trust can allow assets titled to it to pass outside probate while you retain the power to amend or revoke the trust during life.6
A Durable Power of Attorney
Authorizes someone you choose to manage financial affairs. Under Florida law, it is generally effective when executed, and a durable power remains effective if you become incapacitated.7
Health Care Directives
A surrogate designation and living will cover medical decisions and end-of-life preferences under Florida law.
Beneficiary Designations
Coordinates retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities with the rest of the plan.
Guardian Nominations and Inheritance Terms
Nominates a preferred guardian for minor children, subject to court appointment, while separate will or trust provisions govern how and when beneficiaries receive assets.11
The documents, beneficiary forms, and asset titling should be reviewed together. Educational only; not tax or legal advice.
Families with larger or more complex estates often layer additional structures on that foundation, from irrevocable life insurance trusts to spousal lifetime access trusts and dynasty trusts. Those tools sit inside the broader set of estate planning strategies for wealthier families, and they only make sense once the core documents are current and coordinated.
Why Estate Planning Should Be a Top Priority
When your estate passes to the next generation, how much would you like to leave to the federal government? Probably none! Yet once a family’s taxable estate grows beyond its available exclusion, the federal transfer-tax schedule can reach 40%.
2026 Estate Tax Rates for Amounts Above Exemption
Source: Kiplinger
Naturally, the actual bill depends on deductions, lifetime gifts, credits, and the structure of the plan, but meaningful wealth above the available exclusion can create a substantial tax cost very quickly.3
For 2026, the federal estate and gift tax basic exclusion amount is $15 million per individual. The annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per donor, per recipient.2
Under qualifying circumstances, a married couple may be able to use as much as $30 million of combined exclusions. That result is not automatic: preserving a deceased spouse’s unused exclusion through portability generally requires the executor to file a timely Form 706.3
A couple may also give up to $38,000 per recipient in 2026 without using lifetime exclusion if each spouse makes a qualifying $19,000 present-interest gift. If one spouse makes the full gift, the gift-splitting rules and Form 709 filing requirements may apply.2,10
Potential Growth Removed From the Taxable Estate
This hypothetical assumes a completed $5 million transfer uses available lifetime exemption. At a hypothetical 6% annual return, the asset reaches about $21.5 million after 25 years. The post-transfer growth is approximately $16.5 million; if that growth would otherwise face a 40% marginal federal estate tax, the illustrative tax difference is approximately $6.6 million.
Illustration Assumptions and DisclosuresAssumes $5 million grows at a hypothetical 6% annually for 25 years, before fees, income taxes, and distributions. Both scenarios assume the original $5 million is sheltered by available exclusion. The retained-asset comparison applies a hypothetical 40% marginal federal estate-tax rate to the approximately $16.46 million of post-transfer growth. Actual federal estate tax is calculated using the entire taxable estate, adjusted taxable gifts, deductions, credits, and other applicable rules, not asset by asset. The trust comparison assumes a completed transfer, proper administration, and no retained powers that would cause estate inclusion. Lifetime transfers can also affect income-tax basis. Educational only; not tax, legal, or investment advice.
Those annual exclusion gifts may seem small in the grand scheme of things but in reality, a steady gifting program to children and grandchildren can move meaningful value out of an estate over a decade or two, and it only happens if the plan and the household cash flow are set up to fund it.
Potential Growth Shifted Outside the Taxable Estate
Properly completed annual gifts can move both the contributed dollars and their later appreciation outside the donors’ taxable estate. Here, $38,000 of annual gifts to one beneficiary totals $950,000 over 25 years and might grow to about $2.1 million at a hypothetical 6% annual return.
Illustration Assumptions and DisclosuresAssumes $38,000 of end-of-year gifts annually for 25 years, using the 2026 annual exclusion amount as a constant hypothetical. Each spouse is assumed to make a qualifying $19,000 present-interest gift to one beneficiary each year. If only one spouse makes the gifts, gift-splitting and Form 709 filing requirements may apply. When each gift is completed and no retained interest or power causes estate inclusion, the gifted assets and subsequent appreciation may remain outside the donors’ gross estates. Without the gifts, those assets and their appreciation could have remained inside the donors’ taxable estates. The illustration assumes a constant hypothetical 6% annual return and no fees, taxes, losses, or distributions. Returns are not guaranteed and values can decline. Annual exclusions may change, and gifts to trusts may require present-interest withdrawal rights or additional reporting. Educational only; not tax, legal, or investment advice.
Florida imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax, although federal estate tax may still apply.4,5
But what if your estate is only worth a million or two?
A $15 million exclusion is significant and doesn’t exactly create a sense of urgency if your net worth hardly even approaches it.
Two cautions apply. First, a household earning $1 million or more in its 40s or 50s can compound into taxable-estate territory over two or three decades, especially with a business or appreciated real estate in the mix.
Second, the exclusion is a creature of legislation. Congress set the current figure, and a future Congress can change it. A plan built to flex with the law is worth more than a plan built on the assumption that today’s exemption cannot change.
Estate tax is also only one line item. Probate costs, incapacity, family conflict, and forced sales of illiquid assets can erode wealth at any estate size, and those risks don’t check your net worth against an exemption table first.
Where Estate Plans Can Be Fragile
A major issue is an unfunded or partially funded trust. A revocable living trust generally controls only the assets transferred to it, yet the funding process is not always completed or maintained.
For example, a family may sign a carefully drafted trust while a home, brokerage account, or business interest inadvertently remains outside it, potentially leaving that asset subject to probate.
Beneficiary designations are a close second. Retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities, and other contract-based assets generally pass under the governing plan or policy rather than under a will, so a stale designation can conflict with the broader estate plan.
Divorce is one of the clearest examples of why stale designations need attention. Florida law voids many pre-divorce beneficiary designations naming a former spouse, but exceptions may apply when federal law, another state’s law, or the governing contract controls. Review every designation after a marriage, divorce, death in the family, or other major life change.
Relocation is a third issue. Families who settle in Sarasota, Venice, or Tampa often arrive with documents drafted under another state’s law. Those documents may remain legally valid, but Florida institutions may require additional review or documentation, and the plan may not account for Florida-specific rules.
In particular, Florida restricts how homestead property may be devised when the owner is survived by a spouse or minor child. A Florida attorney should review the will, trust, powers of attorney, health care directives, fiduciary appointments, and ownership of the residence after a move.7,9,12
Finally, there’s liquidity. An estate concentrated in a business, real estate, or partnership interests can owe a significant tax bill with little cash available to pay it, which is why estate liquidity planning is essential for wealthy families. And when a household includes children from prior marriages, the plan carries extra structural weight, since blended families face estate planning issues that default rules handle badly.
When To Review Your Plan
A reasonable rule for a high-earning household is a full review every three years, with an immediate review after any significant event: a marriage or divorce, a birth or death in the family, the sale of a business or another liquidity event, a move across state lines, a large change in net worth, or a meaningful change in tax law.
The 2026 increase to a $15 million basic exclusion amount, along with the removal of the previously scheduled sunset, is also a reason to revisit older documents. Formula-based provisions drafted when the exclusion was much lower may now allocate assets differently than the family expects. The result depends on the document’s exact language, the assets available at death, and the family’s current goals.2
In Conclusion
A $1M+ income can build wealth quickly, and an estate plan helps determine whether that wealth transfers on your terms or under default legal and contractual rules. The plan you need is a current one: core documents in place, any trusts properly funded, beneficiary designations aligned, liquidity addressed, and structures that can adapt as the law changes. None of that requires current estate-tax exposure to be worth doing, and starting earlier generally gives a family more options and more time to coordinate.
At WealthGen Advisors, we coordinate estate strategy with your investment, tax, and retirement planning, working alongside your attorney and CPA so the documents, the assets, and the numbers agree with each other. If your estate plan is missing, stale, or untested, schedule a meeting with our team and we’ll help you run the checkup.
Sources
Educational only; not investment, tax, or legal advice. Source links open in a new tab.
