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

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explain how a Credit Shelter Trust, also known as a bypass trust, helps married couples preserve their federal estate tax exemption. They walk through a specific case: a Connecticut couple with a $13 million estate, showing how without the trust, the surviving spouse could lose the first spouse's exemption, resulting in a tax bill of roughly $1.5 million. They detai...

Episode 53 of Estate Planning with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna break down the Charitable Remainder Unitrust with a FLIP provision — a way to donate appreciated assets, claim a charitable deduction, and receive variable income until a triggering event, at which point the trust converts to a fixed-payout structure. They walk through a real scenario: a real estate investor contributing a $1.2 million ren...

If you have a loved one with a disability, leaving them an inheritance outright could disqualify them from Medicaid and SSI. Lucas and Luna explain how a properly drafted third-party special needs trust lets you provide for their quality of life without jeopardizing essential government benefits. They walk through the rules—what counts as a qualifying distribution, who should serve as trustee, and...

Episode 51 of Estate Planning with Fexingo tackles a less common but critical planning need: protecting a surviving spouse who is not a U.S. citizen. Lucas and Luna break down how a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT) allows a non-citizen spouse to defer the federal estate tax on assets inherited from a citizen spouse. Using the case of a Canadian-born spouse married to a U.S. citizen for 15 years, Lu...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the charitable remainder trust — a strategy that lets you turn highly appreciated assets into lifetime income while making a major gift to charity. They walk through a concrete example: a retiree with $500,000 in low-basis stock who wants to diversify without triggering a huge capital gains tax bill. The CRT sells the stock ta...

Episode 49 of Estate Planning with Fexingo dives into the nongrantor trust—a powerful tool that keeps inherited wealth separate from a child's marriage assets. Lucas and Luna unpack a real-world case: a couple with a $2 million estate who used a nongrantor trust to protect their son's inheritance from a future divorce settlement. They explain how the trust's separate tax ID shifts income tax liabi...

Episode 48 of Estate Planning with Fexingo tackles the Miller Trust, a legally sanctioned workaround for seniors whose income exceeds Medicaid's strict limits. Lucas and Luna walk through how a qualified income trust—named after a 1990s court case—lets nursing home residents funnel excess Social Security and pension income into an irrevocable trust, making them eligible for long-term care coverage...

When you donate a valuable asset like artwork, a closely-held business interest, or real estate to charity, the IRS requires a qualified appraisal to substantiate the deduction. Get it wrong, and you face accuracy-related penalties that can wipe out the tax benefit. In this episode, Lucas and Luna walk through the specific rules: what makes an appraiser 'qualified,' the difference between a Form 8...

Lucas and Luna break down the Spousal Lifetime Access Trust, or SLAT—a strategy that lets couples move assets out of their estate while still accessing them if needed. They walk through a concrete case: a couple with a $15 million estate in 2026, facing a potential estate tax hit of over $4 million. Lucas explains how a SLAT uses the gift tax exemption to create an irrevocable trust for one spouse...

Episode 45 of Estate Planning with Fexingo dives into Qualified Opportunity Zone trusts. Lucas and Luna unpack how these trusts let investors defer capital gains by rolling them into designated low-income communities, with a concrete example of a real estate investor who rolled $2 million in gains into a Denver-area opportunity fund in 2024. They explain the 10-year holding period, the 10 percent...

Episode 44 of Estate Planning with Fexingo dives into the Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT), a powerful estate-freeze tool that lets wealthy individuals pass future appreciation to heirs tax-free. Lucas and Luna break down the mechanics with a concrete example: a $5 million asset placed in a GRAT with a 3.6% IRS hurdle rate, assuming 8% annual growth. After two years, the grantor receives fixe...

Episode 43 of Estate Planning with Fexingo dives into the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT). Lucas and Luna break down how separating life insurance from your taxable estate can save heirs hundreds of thousands in estate taxes. Using a concrete example—a $2 million policy owned by an ILIT versus personally—they show the mechanics: the trust buys the policy, pays premiums with Crummey gifts,...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the dynasty trust, a powerful estate-planning tool designed to pass wealth across multiple generations while minimizing estate taxes. Using the case of the Walton family, they explain how a dynasty trust can shield assets from estate tax every generation, the role of state-level rules on perpetuities, and the practical considerations like trustee selection a...

Lucas and Luna dig into the revocable living trust—often called the workhorse of estate planning. They explain how it differs from a will, why it keeps your estate private, and who actually needs one. Lucas shares a concrete example: a homeowner in Oregon who avoided 18 months of probate and $12,000 in legal fees by funding a trust. They cover the mechanics of funding, the myth that a trust replac...

Episode 40 of Estate Planning with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna break down the Crummey trust—an estate planning tool that turns annual gift tax exclusion gifts into permanent family wealth. They walk through the 1968 Crummey v. Commissioner case that made it all possible, explain the 'Crummey power' withdrawal right, and discuss why this trust is a workhorse for high-net-worth families looking to trans...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, a powerful tool for safeguarding your home from nursing home and long-term care costs. They walk through how the trust works, the five-year lookback rule, and a real-world example: a retired couple in Ohio who placed their $400,000 home into an MAPT five years before needing Medicaid. Luc...

In episode 38, Lucas and Luna explore the Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT), a powerful estate planning strategy that lets homeowners transfer a primary or secondary residence to heirs at a deep discount on the gift tax. They walk through a concrete example: a $2 million home placed in a QPRT with a 10-year retained term, a Section 7520 rate of 5.2 percent, and a resulting taxable gift of...

Episode 37 of Estate Planning with Fexingo explores the Spousal IRA, a powerful but underused tool that allows a working spouse to contribute to an IRA in the name of a non-working spouse. Lucas and Luna break down the 2026 contribution limits ($7,000 for those under 50, $8,000 for 50+), the key rule that the couple's combined earned income must equal or exceed the total contributions, and the fiv...

Episode 36 of Estate Planning with Fexingo dives into the Qualified Terminable Interest Property trust, or QTIP. Lucas and Luna walk through a real-world scenario: a $12 million estate where the first spouse wants to ensure the surviving spouse receives income for life, but the remainder ultimately passes to children from a prior marriage. They explain how a QTIP defers estate tax until the second...

Episode 35 of Estate Planning with Fexingo explores standby trusts—a flexible estate planning tool that can act as a retirement safety net. Lucas and Luna break down how a standby trust works, when to fund it, and why it's an alternative to a standby irrevocable trust for asset protection. They walk through a real-world scenario: a 55-year-old professional funding a trust to shield assets while ma...

Lucas and Luna break down the spousal bypass trust, also known as a credit shelter trust — a powerful estate-planning tool that lets married couples double their estate-tax exemption. They walk through a concrete example: a couple with a $15 million estate in 2026. Without a bypass trust, the surviving spouse could lose half the exemption. With one, they shelter $13.61 million from estate taxes en...

Lucas and Luna tackle the most underused tax break in estate planning: portability. When one spouse dies, the surviving spouse can inherit their unused federal estate tax exemption — current exemptions total roughly $27 million per couple. Yet over 40% of married couples never file the simple IRS Form 706 to elect portability. Lucas walks through the math: if your spouse dies with a $13.5 million...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the Spousal IRA—a powerful but often overlooked tool that allows a non-working spouse to build retirement savings. They walk through the mechanics: how a working spouse can contribute to an IRA in their partner's name, the income limits for 2025, and why this matters for stay-at-home parents or part-time workers. Using a concrete example of a family with o...

Lucas and Luna explore the Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust (IDGT), a sophisticated estate planning tool that lets high-net-worth individuals freeze the value of their estate for tax purposes while paying no capital gains tax on asset appreciation. They walk through a real case study: a real estate developer in Austin who transferred $5 million in rental properties into an IDGT in 2023, savin...

In this episode of Estate Planning with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the Spousal IRA—a powerful but underused estate planning and retirement tool. They anchor the discussion to the 2025 contribution limit of $7,500 per year, explaining how a non-working or lower-earning spouse can build their own retirement savings using the working spouse's income. The hosts walk through real-world eligibility...