What the Big Beautiful Bill Means for 2025 Estate Planning

Last year, I explored the risks tied to the scheduled sunset of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and the implications for wealth transfer.

Now, a significant development reshapes the conversation. In July 2025, lawmakers signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, transforming the landscape of estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax planning.

Rather than facing uncertainty, families and advisors now have a clearer, and more favorable, roadmap for multigenerational wealth planning.

Big Beautiful Bill: Key provisions and exemptions

The new law introduces several key changes that expand opportunities for wealth transfer and provide long-term clarity:

• Raises the federal estate, gift, and GST tax exemption to $15 million per person ($30 million per couple), indexed for inflation starting in 2026.
• Overrides the TCJA sunset, which would have reduced the exemption to approximately $6–7 million.
• Establishes the new exemption level as permanent under the current law, eliminating the automatic rollback that was scheduled under prior legislation. While future laws could still change the exemption, this bill removes the built-in expiration date — giving families greater confidence to plan across generations.

2025 offers a unique window to act. The current exemption level of $13.61 million is still available and can be fully utilized alongside future-focused strategic planning.

Why 2025 is an important year to act on estate planning

Even with the law now in place, taking action this year can still make a real impact. Starting early on key planning steps like funding trusts, securing appraisals, finalizing legal documents, and coordinating with advisors, gives individuals time to layer strategies, lock in valuations, and maximize available exemptions. This is especially important ahead of year-end deadlines and potential market shifts.

Delays can create bottlenecks. Appraisals, legal documents, and trust setup often take longer than expected, and scheduling with advisors, attorneys, or valuation experts can stall execution.

Many existing estate plans also lack the flexibility and integration needed to meet the demands of today’s wealth structures and tomorrow’s tax laws. Updating these plans now helps ensure they remain effective, responsive, and aligned with evolving goals.

Top estate planning tools high net worth families are using in 2025

To navigate this landscape, families turn to a mix of traditional and modern estate planning tools. These approaches offer flexibility, tax efficiency, and adaptability when facing changing laws and family dynamics. Common strategies include:

• Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs): Allow large gifts while retaining family access, offering a high degree of adaptability.
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs): Efficient for freezing asset growth with minimal exemption usage.
• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs): Provide estate liquidity and help avoid forced asset sales.
• Dynasty Trusts with Situs Planning: Preserve generational wealth and optimize state tax exposure.
• Charitable Planning Strategies (CRTs, CLTs): Maximizing philanthropic objectives of the family while also minimizing tax exposure within the overall context of the family’s legacy plan.
• Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI): Enable tax-deferred growth inside trusts with tailored investment exposure.

Used in combination, these tools help build estate plans that are resilient and responsive.

Life insurance in estate planning: Liquidity, leverage, and legacy

High-net-worth families often face a paradox: their estates may be worth tens or hundreds of millions, yet much of that wealth is tied up in assets that aren’t easily converted to cash, like real estate, private businesses, or concentrated stock positions. When someone passes away, estate taxes are typically due in cash within nine months, regardless of how liquid the estate is.

This mismatch between asset type and tax obligation creates a planning challenge. Life insurance, especially when held in an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) or structured as private placement life insurance (PPLI) inside a trust, can help solve for liquidity while supporting broader estate, income, and investment goals.

How do ILITs work?

Irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs) provide a powerful combination of liquidity and tax efficiency. They:

• Remove the death benefit from the taxable estate.
• Deliver income and estate tax-free liquidity to the trust.
• Prevent forced sales of operating businesses or real estate.
• Support equalization of inheritances, business succession, or charitable legacies.
• Scale effectively when paired with dynasty trusts and generation-skipping planning.

For example: An individual with a $40 million estate, primarily tied up in a closely held business and investment real estate, used $5 million of their 2025 lifetime exemption to fund an ILIT. The trust purchased a $15 million life insurance policy designed to pay out after both spouses pass away.

When that occurs:

• The trust receives the full death benefit free of income and estate tax, and those funds can be used to pay estate taxes owed on other assets, helping preserve the business, real estate, and other core family assets.
• The ILIT also includes discretionary distribution provisions and trust protector powers to ensure long-term adaptability.

Private placement life insurance (PPLI) in practice

PPLI adds another layer of strategic flexibility, especially for customers with complex investment portfolios or upcoming liquidity events. Benefits include:

• Customized investments managed by RIAs in Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs), alternative asset managers, or hedge funds.
• Tax-deferred growth and tax-free death benefit payouts
• Asset protection and privacy when owned by a trust
• Avoidance of income tax drag on generational assets
• No surrender charges, high transparency, and low insurance costs relative to death benefit

Consider the case of an entrepreneur with a $120 million net worth, anticipating a major liquidity event, funded a grantor dynasty trust with $10 million to purchase PPLI. The policy was invested in a customized portfolio managed by their advisory team. Over time:

• The trust benefits from tax-deferred growth
• The death benefit will ultimately pass to heirs free of estate and income tax, while the policy’s underlying investments align with the family’s broader wealth strategy
• The trust also includes asset swap powers, giving the individual flexibility to reclaim or exchange assets in the future — potentially optimizing tax outcomes or adjusting cost basis

These examples illustrate how life insurance strategies can align liquidity needs with long-term goals, especially when integrated into broader estate planning strategies.

Act now: 2025 offers a unique estate planning window

Don’t wait. Use 2025 to secure current exemptions, prepare for 2026’s expanded limits, and build adaptable strategies for long-term wealth transfer and multigenerational planning.

A well-designed estate plan, built with foresight and flexibility, can help protect your wealth and preserve your legacy for generations.