A fifteen million dollar federal exemption sounds like permission to stop planning. Tom Moss, attorney at Sawyer and Sawyer, P.A., explains why that assumption costs wealthy families the most. This episode breaks down what actually changed under the new tax law, why a will never avoids probate, and what happens when an estate crosses that $15 million line at a 40% tax rate, a scenario more Central Florida families are facing as wealth from New York, California, and Illinois keeps moving south.
Tom walks through the residency tests Florida actually enforces, the homestead protections families overestimate, and the funding formulas buried in decade-old trusts that can quietly redirect an entire estate. He also covers what a first meeting with his firm looks like and why family dynamics matter as much as the balance sheet.
For any family sitting on real wealth, this conversation is the reality check worth hearing before something goes wrong, not after.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Why a will alone never avoids probate, even for multimillion dollar estates
- The new $15 million (single) and $30 million (married) federal exemption and who it still affects
- How lifetime gifts quietly reduce that exemption before death
- Florida residency requirements families get wrong after relocating from high tax states
- Homestead protections as a wealth preservation tool and where they stop
- Trust funding formulas from older estate plans that no longer match a family’s actual intent
- What a first meeting with an estate planning attorney actually covers
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