When it comes to leaving an inheritance for your children, the decision is much more complex than simply passing along money or property. This choice can significantly impact how you save for retirement, the financial plans you make, and how you manage your assets as you age. It’s crucial to consider your personal financial needs first, ensuring your own financial security before planning for the next generation. Let’s explore the key factors you should consider when planning to leave an inheritance, along with practical strategies to help you navigate this important decision.

Why Leave an Inheritance?

Leaving an inheritance is about more than just transferring wealth; it’s about providing a legacy for your children that reflects your values, hard work, and the care you have for their future. However, this decision requires careful consideration of your financial situation. You must strike a balance between securing your own retirement and ensuring that you can leave something valuable to your heirs.

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Many people feel a deep desire to leave something behind for their children—a house filled with memories, investments that have grown over time, or even a business they’ve built from the ground up. But beyond this emotional desire lies the practical aspect: how will this affect your financial health in your later years? This article will help you think through these decisions carefully.

Prioritize Your Financial Needs

Before making any decisions about leaving an inheritance, it’s critical to assess your own financial needs first. Many retirees make the mistake of gifting assets without fully understanding their own long-term financial requirements. Retirement can be a long journey, and ensuring you have enough to sustain your lifestyle is paramount.

How Much Income Will You Need?

Your first step should be to evaluate how much income you’ll need during retirement. This includes your daily living expenses, any potential travel or hobbies you plan to enjoy, and the possibility of increased healthcare costs as you age. Retirement calculators, such as those offered by ONE Retirement, can be invaluable tools for this. These calculators help you estimate how much you need to save and what you can safely withdraw each year to maintain your standard of living.

It’s also important to factor in inflation and taxes, which can erode your purchasing power over time. Diversifying your investment portfolio between growth and income assets can help ensure your money lasts as long as you do. A balanced approach will help protect your savings from the unpredictability of the market while allowing your funds to grow.

How Will You Handle Healthcare Costs?

One of the most significant risks to your retirement savings—and by extension, your children’s inheritance—is the potential for high healthcare costs. As you age, the likelihood of needing long-term care increases, and these costs can be staggering. Unfortunately, many government programs offer limited assistance in covering these expenses.

Medicare, for example, covers only a small portion of long-term care costs, typically up to 100 days in a skilled nursing facility, and only under certain conditions. Medicaid, which does provide more extensive coverage for long-term care, requires you to spend down almost all your assets before qualifying. It’s also important to note that you cannot simply transfer assets to family members to qualify for Medicaid, as the program enforces a "look-back" period, penalizing any significant transfers made within a certain number of years before applying.

Long-term care insurance is one option to protect your assets from these costs. However, these policies are often expensive and come with various limitations. For instance, they might only cover specific types of care or have caps on the total benefits they will pay out. It’s crucial to carefully evaluate these policies with a trusted financial advisor to determine if they make sense for your situation.

Will Your Savings Last?

Another critical consideration is the risk of outliving your retirement savings. With people living longer than ever before, it’s not uncommon for retirement to last 20, 30, or even 40 years. This extended lifespan means your savings need to stretch much further than they would have for previous generations.

Strategies for Managing Longevity Risk

One effective strategy to manage longevity risk is to purchase an immediate annuity. An immediate annuity can provide you with a guaranteed income for life, ensuring that you’ll have a steady stream of money regardless of how long you live. This can offer peace of mind, knowing that your basic needs will be covered no matter what happens.  However, as with any financial decision, there are tradeoffs that need to be considered.  For example, one drawback of most immediate annuities is that the income may not keep pace with inflation.

Additionally, if you have a pension or retirement plan, you may have the option to stretch your payments over your lifetime or that of a spouse. This "stretch" option allows you to receive smaller payments over a more extended period rather than taking a lump sum, which can help ensure you don’t outlive your savings.  

How Will Taxes Impact Your Estate?

Taxes are a significant consideration when leaving an inheritance. Depending on the type of assets you leave behind, your heirs could face different tax consequences. Understanding these implications can help you structure your estate to minimize the tax burden on your loved ones.

What Is the Step-Up in Basis?

One of the most advantageous tax provisions for heirs is the "step-up in basis." This rule applies to assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate. When you pass these assets to your heirs, their tax basis is "stepped up" to the asset's fair market value at the time of your death. This means that if they sell the asset shortly after inheriting it, they’ll pay little or no capital gains tax.

For example, if you bought a home for $200,000 that’s worth $500,000 at your death, your heirs would inherit it with a basis of $500,000. If they sell it for $500,000, they won’t owe any capital gains tax on the sale.

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Inherited IRAs and Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)

Inherited IRAs are subject to specific rules, particularly regarding required minimum distributions (RMDs). The rules can be complex and have changed in recent years, especially with the introduction of the SECURE Act, which eliminated the "stretch IRA" for most non-spouse beneficiaries. Under the new rules, most non-spousal heirs must withdraw all the funds from an inherited IRA within 10 years of the original owner’s death. However, certain beneficiaries, such as minor children or disabled individuals, may still qualify for the old "stretch" provisions.

The timing and amount of these withdrawals can significantly impact your heirs' tax liabilities. For this reason, it’s important to stay informed about the latest IRS regulations and consider consulting a financial advisor to optimize your estate plan.

The Role of Trusts in Estate Planning

Trusts are powerful tools in estate planning that can help you control how and when your assets are distributed after your death. They can be particularly useful in situations where you want to ensure that your assets are managed according to your wishes or if you want to protect your estate from probate.

Benefits of Establishing a Trust

One of the primary benefits of a trust is that it allows you to dictate the terms of distribution. For instance, you can specify that your children receive their inheritance in stages—such as at age 25, 35, and 45—rather than all at once. This can prevent young or financially inexperienced heirs from mismanaging their inheritance.

Trusts also offer privacy, as they are not subject to probate, which is a public process. This can keep details of your estate, including the value and distribution of assets, out of the public record.

Which Type of Trust Is Right for You?

There are different types of trusts to consider:

• Revocable Living Trust: Allows you to retain control over your assets while you’re alive and provides flexibility to change the terms or dissolve the trust.

• Irrevocable Trust: Offers protection from creditors and can reduce the taxable value of your estate but cannot be changed without the beneficiaries' consent.

• Special Needs Trust: Designed to provide for a disabled heir without disqualifying them from receiving government benefits.

Work with an estate planning attorney to determine which type of trust best suits your needs.

Gifting Assets During Your Lifetime

Gifting assets to your children while you’re still alive can be a way to help them financially while reducing the size of your estate. This strategy can also provide you with the satisfaction of seeing your children benefit from your generosity during your lifetime.

Annual Gift Tax Exclusion

Each year, you can gift up to a certain amount per person without incurring gift tax or needing to file a gift tax return. For 2024, this amount is $18,000 per recipient. This means you could gift $18,000 to each of your children (and their spouses) every year, effectively transferring a significant portion of your wealth over time without any tax consequences.

While gifting can reduce the size of your estate, it’s important to consider your financial needs first. Make sure that your gifts won’t compromise your ability to fund your retirement.

Considerations for Gifting

When gifting appreciated assets, like stocks or real estate, keep in mind that the recipient will assume your original cost basis. This means they could face significant capital gains taxes if they sell the asset. However, if their tax rate is lower than yours, gifting appreciated assets might still make sense.

Another option is to gift assets to your grandchildren or other minors using a custodial account under the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) or Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA). These accounts allow you to manage the assets until the child reaches the age of majority, at which point they gain full control.

The Family Home: A Gift or a Burden?

The family home often carries deep emotional significance, making it a cherished part of any inheritance. However, inheriting a home isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. There are several practical considerations that both you and your children need to think about.

The Challenges of Inheriting a Home

One of the main challenges of inheriting a home is its illiquidity. Unlike stocks or cash, a home can’t be easily divided or sold in parts. If your children inherit the property jointly, they’ll need to decide whether to keep it, sell it, or rent it out. This decision can be complicated if the home is in a less desirable location or if there are significant ongoing expenses like property taxes, maintenance, and insurance.

Additionally, the emotional attachment to the family home can create conflicts among siblings, especially if they have different ideas about what to do with the property. Open communication and clear agreements are crucial to avoiding disputes and ensuring that the inheritance is handled smoothly.

The Benefits of Keeping the Home

On the other hand, keeping the family home can be a way to preserve memories and maintain a connection to the past. For some families, the emotional value of the home far outweighs any financial considerations. If your children can afford the ongoing expenses and are willing to take on the responsibility, the home could become a vacation property or even generate rental income.

There are also potential tax benefits to consider. If your children inherit the home and later sell it, they’ll benefit from a step-up in basis, which could significantly reduce any capital gains tax they owe.

The Bottom Line: Making the Right Decision

Leaving an inheritance to your children is a deeply personal decision that requires careful planning and consideration. It’s important to prioritize your financial security first, ensuring that you have enough to live comfortably throughout your retirement. From there, you can explore the various options for passing on your wealth, whether through trusts, gifting, or leaving assets like the family home.

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. What’s best for one family may not be right for another. The key is to communicate openly with your children, understand their needs and expectations, and work with professionals like financial advisors and estate planning attorneys to craft a plan that honors your wishes while providing for your loved ones.

In the end, leaving a legacy is about more than just money. It’s about ensuring that your values and hard work live on, providing your children with both financial security and a sense of connection to their past. With thoughtful planning, you can achieve both.

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Reference

Bloomenthal, A. (2022). Inheritance: Definition, How It Works, and Taxes. Retrieved from Investopedia website: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inheritance.asp

Catalano, T. J. (2022). Understanding the Impact of Step-Up in Basis on Inherited Assets. Retrieved from Investopedia website: https://www.investopedia.com/step-up-in-basis-definition-5191602

Sonzogni, C. (2023). SECURE Act: What It Means, How It Works, Rationale. Retrieved from The CPA Journal website: https://www.cpajournal.com/2023/01/27/first-look-at-the-secure-2-0-act-of-2022/