The One Big Beautiful Bill Act's permanent $15 million estate and gift tax exemption ($30 million for married couples) has quietly upended the assumptions behind thousands of existing estate plans. Clients who purchased life insurance for estate tax liquidity — often inside irrevocable trusts — may no longer need it for that purpose, while others still have real income-tax-driven reasons to keep coverage in force. This session gives CFP® professionals and IARs a practical framework for revisiting legacy trust and insurance structures now that federal estate tax is a non-issue for the vast majority of clients: when and how to decant or restructure irrevocable trusts built for a lower-exemption world, options for repurposing unneeded life insurance (1035 exchanges to annuities or long-term care hybrids, sales in the life settlement market), and how to benchmark policy cost reasonableness using tools like Veralytic — plus why clients with large qualified plan balances may still need insurance for income tax liquidity.
Learning Objectives — participants will be able to:
- Explain how the OBBBA's permanent $15 million individual / $30 million married couple exemption changes the estate planning calculus for most clients, and identify which clients still need transfer-tax-focused planning.
- Evaluate when and how to decant, modify, or restructure irrevocable trusts drafted around a lower exemption environment, including issues specific to trust-owned life insurance.
- Compare repositioning strategies for unneeded life insurance — 1035 exchange to an annuity or long-term care hybrid product, sale in the life settlement market, or retention.
- Identify situations — particularly large qualified plan balances — where retaining life insurance still serves an income tax planning purpose despite the higher exemption.
- Apply objective cost-of-insurance benchmarking (e.g., Veralytic) in a fiduciary policy review.