A $15 Million Exemption, and the Estate Planning Deadline That Vanished
The federal estate and gift tax exemption rose to $15 million per person for 2026 with no sunset date, removing the cliff that has driven high-net-worth planning for the better part of a decade.
For eight years, estate planning in the United States operated under a deadline. The exemption enacted in 2017 was scheduled to fall by roughly half at the end of 2025, and every adviser's advice was organized around using the higher amount before it disappeared.
That deadline is gone. The exemption stands at $15 million per person for 2026 — $30 million for a married couple — indexed for inflation, with no scheduled reversion.
What changes for families
The immediate effect is that urgency has evaporated. Families that spent years being told to make large gifts before a sunset can now make the same decisions on their own timeline.
That is a larger change than it sounds. Deadline-driven planning produced structures that were technically sound and, in some cases, badly matched to what a family actually wanted — irrevocable trusts funded with assets the donors later needed, gifts made to children who were not ready, and complex arrangements adopted mainly because the clock was running.
What "permanent" means in tax law
It means the provision has no expiration date written into it. It does not mean it cannot be changed. A future Congress can lower the exemption at any time, and the exemption has moved substantially in both directions over the past twenty-five years.
The practical consequence is that families are now planning against political risk rather than a statutory date. That is a harder thing to model and, for most, a less compelling reason to act quickly.
Where the planning attention moves
Three areas are absorbing the effort that used to go into beating the deadline.
Income tax basis. With fewer estates taxable, the step-up in basis at death becomes the dominant consideration. Assets given away during life carry the donor's basis; assets held until death generally get a new one. For families below the exemption, holding is now often better than gifting.
State estate taxes. Several states impose their own estate or inheritance taxes at thresholds far below the federal one. For families in those states, the federal change does nothing.
Non-tax purposes. Trusts serve functions that have nothing to do with tax — creditor protection, control over distributions, planning for beneficiaries who need structure. Those reasons survive every change in the exemption.
