7 biggest celebrity estate planning lessons of 2014
![Bill and Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20140627/FREE/140629915" target="_blank">made headlines for their use of the qualified personal residence trust</a> or QPRT — lovingly pronounced “kew-pert” by tax geeks — to save on estate and gift taxes.<br>
The couple drafted two such trusts in 2010, divided the ownership of their Chappaqua, N.Y., home into separate 50% shares and then moved those shares into the trusts, according to Bloomberg. The Clintons bought the home 15 years ago for $1.7 million and its estimated value for property taxes is $1.8 million.<br>
<b>Lesson:</b> The strategy will save them a pretty penny: It allows them to remove the value of the home from their taxable estate and pass it to beneficiaries free of estate tax at the end of the trust's term, provided the grantors — Bill and Hillary — are alive at that time.<br>
“It's a gift-tax savings tool,” said Gavin Morrissey, senior vice president of wealth management at Commonwealth Financial Network. “The people who benefit from this are the people who want to remove the home from the estate to reduce their taxable estate.”](https://s32566.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/FREE_122909999_PH_5_YUCVAXTAEVYO.jpg.optimal.jpg)
Bill and Hillary Clinton made headlines for their use of the qualified personal residence trust or QPRT — lovingly pronounced “kew-pert” by tax geeks — to save on estate and gift taxes.
The couple drafted two such trusts in 2010, divided the ownership of their Chappaqua, N.Y., home into separate 50% shares and then moved those shares into the trusts, according to Bloomberg. The Clintons bought the home 15 years ago for $1.7 million and its estimated value for property taxes is $1.8 million.
Lesson: The strategy will save them a pretty penny: It allows them to remove the value of the home from their taxable estate and pass it to beneficiaries free of estate tax at the end of the trust's term, provided the grantors — Bill and Hillary — are alive at that time.
“It's a gift-tax savings tool,” said Gavin Morrissey, senior vice president of wealth management at Commonwealth Financial Network. “The people who benefit from this are the people who want to remove the home from the estate to reduce their taxable estate.”