Friday, April 10, 2026 - Broadridge Content
Gifting can be a powerful estate planning tool, allowing you to transfer your wealth to others during your lifetime. Lifetime gifts have many advantages over gifts you might leave in your will (these are called bequests, legacies, or devises). You might find making lifetime gifts desirable for nontax reasons (e.g., personal gratification), or perhaps you'll make lifetime gifts for tax purposes (e.g., taking advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion), or your estate planning objectives may be the outcome of both nontax and tax factors. You'll want to figure your own personal desires and the tax implications of making lifetime gifts to fully clarify your estate planning objectives. When you have selected what property to give, the process of completing the transfer may be fairly simple (e.g., giving cash) or more complex (e.g., transferring ownership of a business). Make sure that you follow through and properly transfer ownership (e.g., change name on titles).