“The greatest boost for the high-net-worth client, and still unappreciated, is portability,” said Martin Abo, a CPA at Abo and Company and Abo Cipolla Financial Forensics in Mount Laurel, N.J. “This concept, permanent since 2012, effectively eliminates the use-it-or-lose-it characteristic of the federal estate and gift tax exemption amount. If one spouse doesn’t use his or her entire exemption amount, the estate can effectively port the unused portion to the surviving spouse.”
Two other strategies are often under-used, according to Abo: the educational exclusion for directly paying tuition to a qualifying institution and the medical exclusion for directly paying an institution for medical care or a company for medical insurance.