Tips From the Pros: Assessing the Proper Role of PortabilityTips From the Pros: Assessing the Proper Role of Portability

One of the most important aspects of the 2012 Tax Act¹ for estate-planning professionals is that it made portability permanent (to the extent anything emanating from Washington can be said to be “permanent”).² The term “portability” is shorthand among estate planners for the ability of a predeceased spouse’s executor to transmit to the surviving spouse the predeceased spouse’s deceased spousal unused exclusion amount (DSUEA). As a result, measured by 2020 numbers, spouses with an aggregate net worth of up to $23.16 million, without having to reallocate ownership of assets between them before either of them has died, would be able to transfer all of their assets to any one or more persons, whether through judiciously timed gifts during li...