| Historically, one of the reasons for creating an estate plan was to avoid one's heirs being saddled with burdensome estate tax. For those whose estates are subject to estate tax, this is still an important motivator for estate planning. However, the reality is that very few people have had large enough estates to be subject to federal estate tax. With the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), that number has gotten even smaller: each individual can now exempt $11,180,000 from federal estate tax. For a married couple, that number doubles. What's more, the exemption is portable; if the first spouse to die only uses $1,000,000 of the exemption, his or her spouse can use the remainder of the exemption in addition to their own. Even if you are financially very comfortable, you may not have assets approaching twelve million dollars. You may ask yourself, "Why do I need an
estate plan if my estate isn't taxable?"
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