Asset Protection & Tax Planning in 2026
You worked hard for what you have. The goal here is simple — keep more of it in your family’s hands, and out of reach of taxes, lawsuits, and bad luck.
Protecting what you’ve built
Life throws curveballs. A business dispute, a car accident, a creditor, a divorce in the family — any one of these can put your savings at risk. Asset protection means setting things up ahead of time, so a single bad event doesn’t undo years of work.
There’s no one-size-fits-all tool. The right plan depends on what you own, what you do for a living, and who you want to provide for. We look at your whole picture and build protections that fit — the kind you put in place before there’s a problem, not after.
Planning for taxes
Here’s the good news heading into 2026: the federal estate and gift tax exemption is now $15 million per person — $30 million for a married couple — and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made that amount permanent. The 2025 “sunset” everyone braced for never happened. For most Utah families, that means no federal estate tax at all. Utah adds no estate or inheritance tax of its own, so there’s no separate state bill to plan around.
That doesn’t mean tax planning is off the table. You can still give up to $19,000 per person each year (the 2026 amount) without touching your lifetime exemption — a simple, steady way to move wealth to your kids and grandkids. For larger estates, or for assets you expect to grow, the right trust and gifting strategy keeps more of what you’ve built in the family.
The exemption starts adjusting for inflation in 2027, and tax law can shift with the next Congress. So we build plans that flex instead of plans that break.
Good tax planning isn’t about gaming the system. It’s about using the tools the law already gives you — trusts, gifting, and the right ownership structure — so more of your estate goes where you want it to go.
Where we come in
We’ll talk through what you own, what worries you, and what you want for the people you love. Then we’ll put a plan in writing that protects your assets and keeps your tax exposure as low as the law allows. No scare tactics, no cookie-cutter forms — just a plan that fits your life.
