Portability: One of the Most Overlooked Estate Tax Elections
Many married couples assume that if everything is left to the surviving spouse, no additional estate tax planning is necessary. While that may be true in the short term, failing to make one important election after the first spouse dies could cost a family millions of dollars in unnecessary federal estate taxes later. That election is called portability. What Is Portability? Portability allows a surviving spouse to inherit the unused portion of a deceased spouse's federal estate and gift tax exemption. In simple terms, if the first spouse dies without using all of their federal exemption, the surviving spouse may ... Read More
