Preserving Portability: Practitioners Need to File Form 706 to Protect Clients

For estates in 2011 and 2012, practitioners should realize that an estate of the first spouse to die must affirmatively elect for portability. This can only be accomplished by filing Form 706 with the IRS. Estates should file the return even when the combined assets of a couple are under the individual exclusion amount ($5 million). Robert Bloink demonstrates how a failure to file Form 706 could financially hurt a surviving spouse's estate many years down the road.

See Robert Bloink, "Portability Election Could Trigger Estate Tax Return Avalanche," advisorone.com (Oct. 15, 2011).

Posted by Andrew Hodes, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.