Election year could portend estate-planning uncertainty

The impending election may, then again it may not, have some implications for estate planning.

It all depends, according to a recent article on the website of the National Law Review, on whether or not the split between a Democratic President and a Republican Congress continues to be the case.

“In the past four years, a Democratic President and Republican Congress has resulted in no significant estate tax legislation,” the article states (http://www.natlawreview.com/article/november-election-and-estate-planning). “Thus, after 10 years or so of uncertainty and change that preceded 2012, there has been an estate planning calm. It is unlikely the calm changes in 2017 if there is President Clinton and a Republican Congress. Hillary favors the same provisions as President Obama, which are reducing the estate tax exemption from $5 million per person, indexed for inflation, to $3.5 million, and increasing the estate tax rate from 40 percent to 45 percent. But as with President Obama, it is unlikely these proposals will go anywhere, unless Democrats take control of the House and Senate.”

Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, on the other hand, has said he favors eliminating the estate tax altogether.

“Perhaps a big push to eliminate the estate tax would result if large Republican majorities controlled the House and Senate. But even with a Republican President and Congress it is more likely current law, allowing married couples to protect $10.9 million from estate tax, adjusted annually for inflation, would continue.”