Answers To Your Top 5 Questions Right Now
Twice a year, we host an open office hours session - an informal gathering where friends and family of our clients can come in, ask questions, and have candid conversations about their financial lives. No pitch decks, no agendas - just a conversation with people who care deeply about protecting what they’ve built and a team who knows how to do just that.
This spring’s session didn’t disappoint. The conversations were rich, the questions were thoughtful, and - as always - a handful of themes surfaced across all the individuals and families we met with. Five questions in particular came up so consistently that we felt compelled to write them down and share our answers more broadly.
If you weren’t able to join us this time, consider this your recap. And if any of these hit close to home, know that we’re always here to continue the conversation.
“Is my estate plan still ‘right’ after all the recent tax law changes?”
This one came up in nearly every conversation during office hours - and it makes sense why. The short answer: your plan is probably worth a close look. An estate plan written three years ago may have been optimized for a very different set of rules. The structures that made sense then may leave significant value on the table today.
The longer answer is more nuanced:
The federal lifetime gift and estate tax exemption is now permanently set at $15 million per individual - or $30 million for a married couple. For many families, that’s good news. It means assets that might have been subject to the 40% federal estate tax can now pass to your heirs free and clear. However, something that is important to note is that a permanent higher exemption doesn’t mean you can set your estate plan on a shelf. State estate taxes can heavily influence your estate plan and the laws governing trusts, charitable vehicles, and gifting strategies continue to evolve.
Here’s what we’d encourage every family to do right now:
- Revisit your foundational documents.
- Review your will, your trust structures, your beneficiary designations, and any gifting strategies already in motion.
Assess whether they still reflect both your intentions and the current legal environment.
Note: If you’re a couple, make sure your spouse is fully part of that conversation - not just a signature on the paperwork.
The families who fare best across generations aren’t necessarily those who have the most sophisticated structures. They’re the ones who review those structures regularly and keep them aligned with their life.
“How do we transfer wealth to our children without losing control or creating conflict?”
We are so happy when individuals or families ask us this question. Why? Because, we’ve seen multigenerational wealth planning done beautifully - and we’ve also seen it fracture families who loved each other deeply but never had the right conversations.
The good news is that most family conflict around wealth isn’t caused by money itself. It’s caused by ambiguity: unclear intentions, unequal expectations, and structures that were never explained to the people they’re meant to benefit. The solution, more often than not, isn’t just solid planning - it’s also clear communication within the family around that planning.
Yes, tools like trusts and tiered gifting strategies can help families transfer wealth in a way that’s both tax-efficient and thoughtfully controlled. But, taking into account the ‘human’ side of things - which is where these situations can go south - we’ve found that families who bring the next generation into the conversation early (not to hand over control, but to share values) tend to weather transitions far better. That might mean a family meeting with an agenda, or a letter that explains the “why” behind the estate plan. It doesn’t have to be overly formal, but it does have to happen.
If this is something you haven’t addressed yet, this is exactly the kind of conversation we regularly help facilitate - don’t hesitate to reach out.
“We have great advisors - but does anyone actually have the full picture?”
When this question surfaced at office hours, we nodded along knowing exactly what they were talking about. This question doesn’t get asked enough. And, it’s precisely why we built Entrust Wealth Partners - because this coordination traditionally hasn’t happened enough, either. The truth is that many high-net-worth families have assembled a strong bench of professionals over the years: a CPA, an estate attorney, an investment manager, perhaps a private banker. Each one is excellent at their specific piece of the puzzle. But no one is looking at the whole board.
That’s not a criticism of any individual advisor. It’s simply how most advisory relationships are structured. Your accountant focuses on tax returns. Your attorney focuses on documents. Your investment manager focuses on the portfolio. The connective tissue - the strategy that makes all of those things work together - is often missing.
For example: Tax strategy that doesn’t account for estate planning leaves money behind. Estate planning that doesn’t account for business succession leaves families exposed. These things are not separate conversations.
What families at this level typically need is someone whose explicit job is to hold the comprehensive view - to make sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, and that every decision is being made with the full context of the family’s goals.
We serve this role for our clients. But, we know not every wealth planner does. If you’re looking for this type of support, please know it is what we specialize in and we’d be happy to talk through what this kind of coordination looks like in practice. Even if you don’t work with us, the exercise of mapping out all of your current advisors and identifying where the gaps are is enormously valuable on its own.
“What happens to my business if something happens to me?”
For business owners, this is often the most important financial planning question they’ll ever face and one of the most frequently postponed.
But here’s the reality: a business without a succession plan isn’t just a risk to you. It’s a risk to your employees, your partners, your family’s financial security, and the legacy you’ve spent decades building. When ownership transitions happen unexpectedly - whether through death, disability, or a forced sale - families and businesses rarely come out whole on the other side.
A well-designed succession plan does four things at once:
- Protects the business
- Protects your family
- Minimizes tax exposure
- Preserves the relationships that make the business worth something in the first place =
And, here’s something most business owners don’t understand: Succession planning doesn’t have to mean handing over the keys tomorrow. It simply means creating clarity - a buy-sell agreement, a defined ownership transfer strategy, appropriate life and disability insurance structures, and a plan for the leadership transition that aligns with your timeline, not someone else’s.
The truth is, these “business” conversations directly correlate to your estate planning, tax strategy, and asset protection. Done well, they reinforce each other. Done in isolation, they often create as many problems as they solve. If you’ve been putting this conversation off, consider this your nudge.
“Am I actually protected - or just invested?”
Ok, only one person asked this question during office hours - but, it’s so important we thought it deserved a place in this round-up.
Being well-invested and being well-protected are two different things. The families who preserve wealth across generations tend to take both equally seriously.
Most of the conversations we were having during office hours centered around growth: returns, allocation, performance. Far fewer touched on asset protection until we brought it up. And yet, for families who have spent a lifetime accumulating wealth, a single unprotected liability event - a lawsuit, a business dispute, a disability, an unexpected death - can undo in months what took decades to build.
Protection planning covers a lot of ground. It includes the right insurance structures: life insurance designed for estate liquidity rather than just income replacement, disability or long-term care coverage scaled to your actual financial obligations, liability umbrellas appropriately sized for your net worth. It also includes legal structures - LLCs, irrevocable trusts, and other vehicles that separate personal wealth from professional exposure.
One of the most common gaps we see: coverage that was appropriate ten years ago but hasn’t kept pace with the growth of the estate. A $1 million umbrella policy made sense at a different wealth level. At $10 million or $30 million, it barely registers.
If you haven’t had a comprehensive review of your protection picture recently - insurance, legal structures, liability exposure - put it on the calendar right now.
The Conversation Doesn’t Stop Here
These five questions don’t have one-size-fits-all answers - and the 30-minute office hour session only scratches the surface. Every family’s situation is different: different assets, different values, different dynamics, different goals. What they share is the need for a thoughtful, coordinated approach that looks at everything together.
If any of these resonated with you, we’d welcome a longer conversation. Our next open office hours session will be this fall - but you don’t have to wait. Contact us anytime at (860) 838-3730.
