Newsletter Introduction

By Chris Cassidy

ON JULY 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was signed into law as Public Law 119-21. Because the law extended several tax cuts and permanently codified a $15 million-per-person federal estate tax exemption, many have concluded that they do not need to worry further about estate planning.

There are good reasons why estate planning now is more important than ever. Some of these reasons, including state estate taxes and uncertain future legislation, are covered in this newsletter. Here’s another reason: For a lot of people, it’s not their current situation that they should be thinking about, but rather their future situation.

Warren Buffett did not become a billionaire until he was 56 years old. Today, at age 95, Mr. Buffett is worth $150 billion and has given away $60 billion over his lifetime. While most of us will never be billionaires (fewer than one thousand exist in this country), if you live a long time, and own high-quality assets, your net worth can increase significantly over your lifetime. Here’s a closer look at the key factors that may mean your potential future wealth will require estate planning:

Longevity

Life expectancy in the U.S. is forecasted to increase to 80 years in 2035. According to demographers, today’s five-year-olds have a better chance than ever of living to be centenarians, and by 2050, looking forward to a 100th birthday will likely be the norm for newborns in wealthier nations, such as the United States, Europe, and parts of Asia. As people live longer, their assets have more time to compound, and their estate values can grow.

Asset Values

Historically, high quality assets, whether stocks, real estate, or gold, increase in value over time. The value of the S&P 500 twenty years ago was about 1,200. At the time of this writing, the S&P was valued at over 6,300. Twenty years ago, the average home price in the U.S. was about $140,000. Today it is $500,000. Twenty years ago, the price of gold per troy ounce was about $475. Today it is $3,300. Given these increases in asset values, people that didn’t feel they needed estate planning twenty years ago may think differently today, and they may wish they had locked in their planning when values were lower.

To provide more information on the OBBBA, several of us have written articles for this newsletter. I encourage you to read these articles and to think about your potential financial situation in the future when making decisions about tax and estate planning today.