With April 15 in the rear-view mirror, many people are asking how they could have done better. Advisors should have responses ready if their clients ask. To learn more, WSR caught up with Andrew J. Plum, an expert on tax law and estate planning who serves as Managing Partner and Investment Committee Head at Loxahatchee Capital.
Plum, who co-founded the firm in 2025 after 15 years as a private wealth advisor at UBS, brought the conversation down to earth, explaining what the latest tax shifts mean for families navigating estate planning, strategies for complex family situations and common mistakes when estate planning and investments are misaligned.
WSR: How are tax law changes prompting families to revisit — or accelerate — their estate plans?
Plum: Recent changes have given families some breathing room, with the estate tax exemption now frozen at $15 million per individual (or $30 million for a couple). However, this doesn’t mean families should sit still. For larger estates, the priority is locking in that exemption now by funding irrevocable trusts, such as spousal lifetime access trusts or dynasty trusts, so that any future growth on those gifted assets occurs outside the grantor’s estate, shielding it from the 40% federal estate tax rate.
For families whose estates now fall below the new exemption threshold, the calculus has actually flipped. In some cases, it may make more sense to pull back assets that were placed into irrevocable trusts years ago — when estate tax exposure was a bigger concern — into the surviving spouse’s estate, allowing those assets to benefit from a stepped-up basis at death. The key takeaway is that both sides of the equation present real planning opportunities, and the current environment rewards those who take a fresh look rather than assuming their existing plan is still the right fit.
WSR: What are some useful strategies for managing complex family situations, such as generational wealth transfers and business succession?
Plum: For families with significant wealth, the dynasty trust is one of the most powerful tools available. Rather than simply passing assets down at death, a dynasty trust creates a separate, lasting pool of capital that can fund education, business opportunities and investment ventures across multiple generations — all while remaining outside the taxable estate. It essentially functions with an endowment mindset, where the investment horizon is effectively infinite, and the portfolio can be positioned more aggressively to reflect that long time horizon.
For families with significant wealth, the dynasty trust is one of the most powerful tools available.
For business families specifically, LLC structures and family limited partnerships offer a complementary approach. Beyond the tax and valuation of discounting benefits, these structures serve as a practical training ground bringing the second, third and fourth generations into family decision-making with appropriate guardrails. The tradeoff is administrative and tax complexity, so families need to honestly assess how much complexity they’re prepared to manage. If done well, these structures can simultaneously preserve wealth and carry the family’s business legacy forward.
WSR: What are common mistakes families make when they don’t align their investment and estate planning strategies?
Plum: One of the most frequent oversights is asset location mismatch — holding tax-inefficient investments like hedge funds or high-turnover strategies in taxable accounts, when they’d be far better suited to tax-deferred or qualified accounts. A thorough review of how each asset is titled and where it’s held is essential in making sure the plan is working as efficiently as possible from a tax standpoint.
One of the most frequent oversights is asset location mismatch.
The other major gap is treating a dynasty trust and a grantor’s personal estate with the same investment framework. The two pools have fundamentally different time horizons and objectives. For example, a dynasty trust is designed to serve multiple generations and should be invested much more aggressively than assets meant to sustain a retiree’s current lifestyle.
Advisors also rarely coordinate. Attorneys, CPAs, real estate managers and philanthropic advisors typically operate in silos and without someone running point, even a beautifully drafted trust can go unfunded and unmaintained, falling well short of its intent.
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
