News & Analysis as of September 2, 2025

Spouses

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Estate taxes, also known as inheritance or death taxes, are taxes on an individual's right to transfer property at death.

Qualified Spousal Trust: Unique Creditor Protection for Married Couples in Missouri

Lathrop GPM on 8/4/2025

Following changes to the federal estate tax law in 2010 – which eliminated the need for separate trusts for married couples to use both spouses’ federal estate tax exemptions – Missouri enacted a new law in 2011 authorizing...more

A Way to Lock in the Current Estate Tax Exemption to Benefit Your Spouse

Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C. on 12/20/2021

With the fate of the estate tax exemption uncertain, you may want to use the current large exemption to transfer assets to a trust to benefit your spouse. A spousal lifetime access trust (SLAT) can help transfer assets...more

IRS Announces Increased Gift and Estate Tax Exemption Amounts

Morgan Lewis on 11/17/2021

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that the annual gift tax exclusion is increasing next year due to inflation. After four years of being at $15,000, the exclusion will be $16,000 per recipient for 2022—the highest...more

Making Use of a Deceased Spouse’s Unused Estate Tax Exemption Simplified

Genova Burns LLC on 7/28/2017

The election for married couples to elect portability of the Federal Estate Tax Exemption was introduced in late 2010 when the Tax Relief Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act (“TRUIRJCA”) was signed...more

Trusts, Estates, Exemptions and Taxes

Lewitt Hackman on 11/3/2015

It may be hard to believe that in 2001, the estate and gift tax exemption, also known as the unified credit, was a mere $675K. In 2016 that credit is anticipated to go up to $5.45M for single filers; potentially $10.9M...more

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