If estate taxes won’t apply, why should you have a trust?

Have you heard we have a new estate tax bill?

Well, not exactly.

But estate taxes were one of the myriad items covered by the Reconciliation Act signed into law on July 4, 2025, and unofficially referred to as One Big Beautiful Bill.

The estate tax exemption, already at $13.9 million per person in 2025, will increase to $15 million in 2026, and continue to increase with cost-of-living adjustments in years to come.

What does the new law mean for your estate planning?

For most of us regular folk (the non-multimillionaires), the new estate tax laws won’t change a thing, since estate taxes were never a concern in the first place.

According to the Tax Policy Center, only 4,000 estate tax returns were filed in 2023 showing an estate tax due.

When you consider that the Census Bureau estima