Estate planning for family business owners is big business for
many wealth advisors, not only because of the large (and
increasing) federal estate tax exemption but also because
Congressional leaders perennially raise the possibility of raising
estate and gift tax rates or cutting exemptions. Those ever-present
human emotions of opportunity and fear seem to be the active
ingredients in motivating families to consider transferring their
wealth, including the family business, to their descendants.
Preserving the business over generations certainly requires,
among other ingredients, good estate planning – not
adequately preparing for estimated estate taxes can impede the
transfer of a family business. Unfortunately, many families
are sometimes intoxicated with the acronyms that promise to
mitigate the pain of impending estate taxes at the expense of
ignoring other important family and business planning issues.
Similar to commercial advertisements that sound too good to
