America’s Most Advisor-Friendly Trust Companies Showcase - Flipbook - Page 22
2026 ADVISOR-FRIENDLY TRUST COMPANIES
53%
RIA FIRMS ALREADY OFFERING
TRUST AND ESTATE SERVICES
THAT PLAN TO EXPAND THEIR
OFFERINGS IN 2026
WHAT HAPPENED?
For advisors whose clients acted
decisively in 2025, the question now is
how those moves interact with the new
framework. Many affluent families used
2025 to make additional lifetime gifts
while the exemption was still in its preOBBBA form, and to coordinate large
charitable gifts and portfolio moves with
year-end tax strategies. Those decisions
now factor into how much of the new
$15 million exemption remains available
going forward.
This matters because the lifetime
exemption is cumulative. Gifts made in
prior years reduce the amount available
under the new higher threshold.
Advisors should be reviewing clients’
gift tax histories carefully in 2026 to
understand the full picture before
designing any new transfer strategies.
The good news is that if you previously
exhausted your exemption under the
old rules, the higher OBBBA threshold
creates new capacity for additional taxfree transfers once it takes effect.
Clients who acted aggressively in 2025
out of sunset anxiety should also revisit
whether those structures still make
sense under the new framework. Trusts
established under pressure, gifting
programs accelerated beyond the
client’s comfort level, and charitable
vehicles created primarily to reduce
taxable estate exposure may all benefit
from a fresh look now that the timeline
pressure has been removed.
RISKS REMAIN
The removal of federal urgency has not
eliminated estate planning complexity. If
anything, it has exposed it. Several fault
lines deserve careful attention in the
period ahead.
The federal-state exemption gap is the
most immediate. In 2026, the planning
landscape for many high-net-worth
families is defined by the disparity
between the $15 million federal
exemption and state-level thresholds
that remain dramatically lower. New
York’s exemption sits at approximately
$7.35 million, and it carries a
particularly dangerous provision: any
estate valued at more than 5% above
the state threshold loses the exemption
entirely, with the entire estate subject
to state tax rather than just the excess.
Falling off that cliff through inattention
is an avoidable outcome that proper
planning can eliminate. Situs selection,
trust jurisdiction strategy, and the
thoughtful use of out-of-state trust
companies have become more
consequential, not less, as the federal
picture has stabilized.
State-level estate taxes operate on
their own legislative timelines and are
entirely independent of what happens
at the federal level. Clients in hightax states who feel a sense of relief
after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
should understand that the relief is
partial. Their state exposure may be
unchanged or, in some cases, growing.
The “permanence” of the OBBBA’s
provisions also deserves honest framing
in client conversations. Even though
the exemption is now described as
permanent, it could always be changed
by future legislation, and the favorable
conditions for wealth transfer could
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be eroded. That remains an important
consideration in multigenerational
estate planning. Permanence in tax law
means until the next Congress decides
otherwise. Advisors who communicate
this clearly are doing better work than
those who allow clients to assume the
current framework is fixed.
The step-up in basis question adds
another layer. Clients who choose
to gift appreciated assets during life
rather than hold them for transfer at
death forgo the step-up in basis that
their heirs would otherwise receive.
With federal exemptions at historically
elevated levels, the calculus between
lifetime gifting and testamentary transfer
has shifted, and the right answer will
depend on the specific asset, the
client’s projected estate size, and
the realistic tax exposure of the next
generation. This is not a question that a
simple rule of thumb answers well.
THE ADVISORY OPPORTUNITY
The most consequential development
of the past year may not be the
legislation itself, but what it revealed
about the state of advisor readiness.
Among RIA firms already offering trust
and estate services, 53% plan to
expand their offerings in 2026, driven
primarily by client demand and the
need to retain next-generation clients.
Among firms managing more than
$500 million in assets, that figure rises
to 66%.
The market is moving. Clients expect
estate planning capability from their
advisors, and firms that don’t have it
are increasingly visible to sophisticated
clients who do their research.
And yet a striking 59% of survey
respondents estimate that fewer
than 25% of advisors have sufficient
knowledge to implement advanced
planning strategies effectively. That gap
between what clients expect and what
