A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
While many wealthy parents are breathing a sigh of relief over estate tax changes in last year’s tax bill, some are questioning whether they gave too much to their children — and how to get some of it back.
Before the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer, the estate tax exemption was set to be cut in half to about $7 million a person at the end of 2025. Many families accelerated gifts to their kids and friends before the deadline in order to take advantage of the higher exemption, which was set during the first Trump administration. Under Trump’s second term, however, the new tax law not only raised the exemption to $15 million but also made it permanent.
Lawyers and advisors told Inside Wealth that some parents are now second-guessing their gifts and considering their legal options for potentially clawing some of it back.
It’s a somewhat unexpected element of the “great wealth transfer,” with more than $100 trillion expected to flow to heirs through 2048, as estimated by Cerulli Associates.
