Estate Plans Focused Only on Taxes Often Leave Families Exposed

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Attorney Joshua Dorcey argues that over-focusing on estate tax avoidance creates blind spots that can cost families more than the taxes they avoided. Key risks that get overlooked include asset protection for a surviving spouse who remarries (under Florida law, a new spouse can claim up to 50% of the house and a 30% share of the estate), income taxes inside a complex trust after death (trusts pay 37% on ordinary income above $16,000 in 2026, while individuals generally pay less), and the loss of step-up in cost basis — the rule that resets an asset's taxable value to its market price at death — when assets have been restructured for minority discounting or gifting. He also warns that strategies designed when the federal estate tax exemption was $650,000 per person may now be unnecessary and expensive to undo, and that leaving complex structures in place without a plan for the next generation can cause family conflict for years.

Dorcey's practical recommendations: fund trusts fully even when the estate won't be taxable; review whether older estate planning structures still make sense now that the combined exemption is $30 million for a married couple; include children in family governance and tax conversations; and schedule regular checkups with an estate attorney rather than treating the plan as finished. He specifically flags that many attorneys use 'portability' — a rule allowing a surviving spouse to preserve the deceased spouse's unused estate-tax exemption — as a reason to skip marital trust planning entirely, leaving retirement accounts, life insurance, and the family home outside any protective structure.