Estate Planning with Fexingo: Wills, Trusts, and Passing Wealth to Future Generations

Lucas and Luna break down the standby trust — a flexible estate-planning tool that lets you retain control of your assets during your lifetime while shielding them from probate and creditors after death. They walk through a real-world scenario: a Massachusetts couple in their early 60s who set up a standby trust to protect a $1.2 million portfolio and a vacation home in Cape Cod. The episode expla...

Episode 103 of Estate Planning with Fexingo dives into the often-overlooked power of beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and payable-on-death bank accounts. Lucas and Luna explain how a simple form can bypass probate court entirely, saving heirs months of delay and thousands in legal fees. They walk through a real-world case: a Chicago widow who inherited her...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into a critical but often overlooked estate planning tool: the durable power of attorney. They explain how a properly drafted POA for finances and healthcare can prevent a court-appointed guardianship if you become incapacitated. Using the real-world case of musician Prince, who died without a will or POA, they illustrate the pub...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Spousal IRA strategy, a powerful yet underutilized tool for boosting retirement savings for a non-working or lower-earning spouse. They break down the rules: how a working spouse can contribute to a separate IRA in the non-working spouse's name, the 2025 contribution limits, the income phase-outs for Roth IRAs, and the key planning nuances around age, el...

In this special 100th episode, Lucas and Luna break down the Spousal IRA, a little-known strategy that lets a working spouse contribute to a non-working spouse's retirement account. They walk through the income thresholds, Roth vs. traditional considerations, and a concrete example of how a couple in their 30s could add $500,000 to their nest egg by using this rule. No ads, just actionable plannin...

Lucas and Luna explore the concept of a perpetual trust, a powerful estate planning tool that can minimize estate taxes for multiple generations. They break down how a trust designed to last forever—often structured as a dynasty trust in states that have abolished the rule against perpetuities—can shelter assets from estate taxes, creditors, and divorce. Using the example of a hypothetical $10 mil...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna break down the mechanics of an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust, or ILIT. They explain how wealthy families use this tool to keep life insurance proceeds out of their taxable estate, potentially saving hundreds of thousands in estate taxes. Lucas uses a concrete example: a $5 million policy that would otherwise trigger a 40% estate ta...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the charitable remainder trust (CRT) — a strategy that lets you donate assets to charity while receiving an income stream for life. They walk through a real-world example: a retiree with $500,000 in highly appreciated stock who wants to sell, avoid capital gains, and boost retirement income. Lucas explains how a CRT can defe...

Episode 96 of Estate Planning with Fexingo explains how a family limited liability company (LLC) can centralize asset management, protect heirs from creditors, and reduce estate tax through valuation discounts. Lucas and Luna walk through a hypothetical example: a $10 million real estate portfolio contributed to a family LLC, with the parents gifting minority membership interests to their children...

Episode 95 of Estate Planning with Fexingo dives into the nongrantor trust—an estate-planning tool that moves assets completely out of the grantor's name, offering powerful creditor protection and income-shifting opportunities. Lucas and Luna walk through a real-world example: a successful surgeon facing a malpractice lawsuit who transferred $2 million into a nongrantor trust two years before a cl...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna walk through a concrete case: a married couple in their 40s where one spouse earns $180,000 and the other stays home with two kids. They explain how the working spouse can contribute to a spousal IRA for the non-earning partner, effectively doubling their household retirement savings by up to $14,000 per year in 2026. Lucas breaks down the IRS spousal IRA rule, the...

Private foundations are often portrayed as tools for the ultra-wealthy, but Lucas and Luna break down how a mid-seven-figure charitable fund can actually make sense for families looking to pass on values along with assets. They walk through the annual 5% distribution requirement, the difference between a private foundation and a donor-advised fund, and why foundation status can extend your estate...

Lucas and Luna break down the Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT), a little-known estate planning tool that lets you gift a second home to your heirs while living in it rent-free for a set term. They walk through a real-world example: a $1.8 million lake house in Vermont, gifted to a QPRT with a 10-year term. If the grantor outlives the term, the house leaves the estate at a fraction of its...

Episode 91 of Estate Planning with Fexingo dives into testamentary trusts—trusts created inside a will that allow you to put conditions on an inheritance. Lucas and Luna walk through a real scenario: leaving $500,000 to a young adult but controlling when and how they access it, from age milestones to performance triggers. They discuss tax implications, creditor protection, and the difference betwe...

Episode 90 of Estate Planning with Fexingo tackles the estate-tax trap that catches married couples when one spouse is not a U.S. citizen. Lucas and Luna walk through the mechanics of a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT) — why the unlimited marital deduction vanishes for non-citizen spouses, how a QDOT defers the estate tax until the surviving spouse's death or withdrawal, and the real-world trade-of...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT), a powerful strategy for married couples facing estate tax exposure. They walk through how a SLAT works—one spouse gifts assets into an irrevocable trust for the other spouse's benefit, removing those assets from the grantor's estate while the beneficiary spouse retains access to income...

Lucas and Luna break down the Grantor Retained Annuity Trust, or GRAT — a strategy that lets you freeze the value of an asset for estate tax purposes while keeping the income. Using the example of a founder holding $50 million in company stock, they walk through how a GRAT works, why it's popular in low-interest-rate environments, and the one risk that can blow it up: dying during the trust term....

More than half of Americans over 65 will need long-term care, and the median annual cost of a private nursing home room is now over $108,000. Without planning, families often drain decades of savings just to qualify for government assistance. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust — a legal structure that lets older adults transfer assets like a home or inve...

Episode 86 of Estate Planning with Fexingo unpacks the Crummey power — a technical but essential mechanism that makes annual gifts to an irrevocable life insurance trust qualify for the gift tax annual exclusion. Lucas and Luna walk through the origin story from the 1968 Crummey v. Commissioner case, explain how a 30-day withdrawal right works in practice, and compare it to the modern alternative...

Lucas and Luna explore the qualified personal residence trust, or QPRT, an estate-planning tool that lets you gift your home to your heirs at a discount while you keep living in it for a set number of years. They walk through a concrete example: a $2 million vacation home transferred into a QPRT with a 10-year retained term, showing how the taxable gift drops by roughly 40 percent when interest ra...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the Dynasty Trust — a powerful vehicle designed to transfer wealth across multiple generations while minimizing estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. Using a detailed example of a $10 million estate, Lucas explains how a Dynasty Trust can shelter assets from taxes for decades or even centuries, provided it's structure...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the grantor trust — a powerful but often misunderstood estate planning tool. They walk through how a grantor trust shifts assets out of your taxable estate while you continue paying the income tax, effectively reducing your estate tax bill without triggering gift tax. Using a concrete example of a $10 million investment portfo...

Lucas and Luna break down the estate tax portability election — the rule that lets a surviving spouse inherit a deceased spouse's unused estate tax exemption. Using the real-world example of a $22 million couple in 2026, they explain how Form 706 is filed to preserve the exemption, why many families miss the nine-month deadline, and what happens when portability is lost. They also contrast portabi...

In Episode 81 of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explain how a retained life estate lets you gift your home to your heirs now while living in it for the rest of your life. They walk through the mechanics of a lady bird deed, the tax implications of a qualified personal residence interest trust, and why a life estate can be a powerful Medicaid planning tool. Using a real-world example...

Episode 80 of Estate Planning with Fexingo unpacks the net gift strategy—a powerful technique that shifts the gift tax burden from the giver to the recipient. Lucas and Luna walk through a concrete example: a parent gifting $1 million in stock to a child, and how structuring it as a net gift cuts the parent's tax liability by over $200,000. They explain the mechanics, the IRS formula, and why this...