Tax & Estate Planning
Protecting What You’ve Built — For the People Who Matter Most
A well-designed estate plan does more than distribute assets. It protects your family from unnecessary court involvement, minimizes the taxes your heirs will pay, keeps your business or farm intact across generations, and ensures that the people you trust are empowered to act when you cannot. At WCSS, we build plans that are sophisticated enough to handle complex situations and clear enough that you actually understand what you have.
We serve Arkansas families, business owners, farm families, and professionals statewide — and we stay with you as your life, your assets, and the law evolve.
Call us at (501) 975-6266 or Contact Us to schedule a consultation.
What a Comprehensive Estate Plan Actually Includes
Most people think of an estate plan as a will. A will is a starting point — but for families with significant assets, a business, a farm, or complex family circumstances, a will alone leaves too much to chance.
A comprehensive plan typically includes a revocable living trust to avoid probate and maintain privacy, a pour-over will to capture any assets outside the trust, durable powers of attorney for both finances and healthcare, a living will expressing your end-of-life wishes, and — depending on your situation — one or more irrevocable planning structures designed to minimize taxes, protect assets, or accomplish specific goals.
The right combination depends on your family structure, asset picture, and objectives. We take the time to understand all of that before we recommend anything.
A well-designed estate plan addresses:
- Who controls your assets if you become incapacitated
- Who makes healthcare decisions on your behalf
- Who receives your assets, in what form, and when
- How to protect inheritances from divorce, creditors, or a beneficiary’s own financial immaturity
- Who will care for minor children or dependents with special needs
- How your business or farm transfers at death or retirement
- How to minimize estate, gift, and income taxes for your heirs
Estate Tax Planning After the One Big Beautiful Budget Act
For years, the primary driver of estate planning for high-net-worth families was the federal estate tax exemption — and specifically, the uncertainty surrounding its scheduled sunset. The One Big Beautiful Budget Act resolved that uncertainty by making the elevated exemption permanent at $15 million per individual. For most Arkansas families, that removes the immediate pressure of transfer tax planning — but estate tax has not disappeared from the picture. The exemption can be reduced by future legislation, and clients with significant and growing estates — particularly those with appreciating farms, business interests, or real estate — may approach or exceed the threshold over time. Irrevocable planning structures also continue to serve purposes beyond transfer tax minimization: asset protection, business succession, and income tax efficiency all remain central considerations.
For many families, the permanence of the current exemption does meaningfully shift emphasis — from transfer tax minimization as the organizing priority to optimizing income tax basis planning for heirs. Assets held at death receive a stepped-up basis, potentially eliminating capital gains on a lifetime of appreciation. How your estate plan is structured — which assets are held in trust, which pass outright, and how irrevocable planning structures are designed — directly affects how much of that tax benefit your heirs actually capture.
We are actively working with clients to review existing plans in light of the current law and, where appropriate, restructure arrangements that were designed primarily around transfer tax minimization but may now benefit from a different approach.
Advanced Planning Structures
For clients with larger estates, closely held businesses, farms, or specific planning objectives, we regularly use a range of advanced planning tools. Each serves a distinct purpose, and we use plain language to make sure you understand what you have and why.
Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs)
A SLAT is an irrevocable trust that allows one spouse to make a completed gift to a trust for the benefit of the other spouse and other family members, removing assets from the taxable estate while maintaining indirect access through the beneficiary spouse. SLATs require careful drafting — particularly for married couples — and must be structured to avoid reciprocal trust problems.
Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (DAPTs)
A DAPT is an advanced estate planning instrument that enables an individual to transfer assets into an irrevocable trust while still retaining certain beneficial interests. Its main purpose is to safeguard these assets from future creditor claims. When properly designed, a DAPT can protect wealth from lawsuits, professional liabilities, divorce, and other financial risks, and it also aids in long-term estate and tax planning. Since DAPTs are subject to complex and changing state laws, careful drafting and strategic implementation are crucial to ensure the trust remains effective and legally compliant.
Family Limited Liability Companies (Family LLCs)
A Family LLC is a flexible estate planning and asset management tool that enables families to pool and oversee their wealth while optimizing tax-efficient transfers to younger generations. By contributing assets—such as real estate, investments, or businesses—to a Family LLC, senior family members can maintain management control while gradually gifting membership interests to children or other heirs, often at lower gift and estate tax values thanks to valuation discounts. Besides streamlining asset management, a well-structured Family LLC offers creditor protection, promotes family governance, and preserves wealth across generations within a comprehensive estate plan.
Installment Sales and Self-Canceling Installment Notes (SCINs)
For clients transferring a family business or farm to the next generation, an installment sale to an intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT) or a self-canceling installment note can shift appreciation out of the taxable estate while spreading the transaction over time. These tools require careful coordination with your CPA and financial advisor and are most effective when implemented as part of a comprehensive succession plan.
Basis Planning and Income Tax Considerations
With the estate tax exemption now permanent at elevated levels, stepped-up basis planning has become one of the most important — and most overlooked — dimensions of estate planning for Arkansas families.
When an heir inherits an asset, its cost basis is generally reset to the fair market value at the date of death. For a farm that was purchased decades ago, a business interest that has grown substantially, or a real estate portfolio with significant appreciation, that step-up can eliminate capital gains taxes on a lifetime of growth. How your plan is structured determines whether your heirs capture that benefit fully or only partially.
We analyze basis planning as a standard component of estate plan design — evaluating which assets should be held in revocable versus irrevocable structures, how spousal planning affects basis outcomes, and whether existing irrevocable arrangements should be reconsidered in light of current law.
Our Process
Estate planning at WCSS follows a structured, six-step process designed to make sure your plan is not only drafted correctly but actually implemented — because documents
that sit in a drawer unfunded are not a plan.
We begin with a confidential questionnaire and a two-hour design meeting where we get to know your family, your assets, and your goals before recommending anything. We then draft your documents, oversee the trust funding process, and execute everything in a review meeting. And we don’t stop there — we stay with you through periodic reviews as your life and the law change.
If your financial advisor or CPA has recommended you speak with an estate planning attorney, or if you’ve reached a point where the stakes are high enough to get this right, we’d welcome the conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
For most of our clients, a revocable living trust is the right foundation. A will requires probate — a court-supervised process that is public, time-consuming, and can be expensive. A trust avoids probate entirely, maintains privacy, and allows your successor trustee to act immediately upon your death or incapacity without court involvement. For clients with real estate in multiple states, a business interest, or a desire to control how and when beneficiaries receive assets, a trust is almost always the better tool.
How does the current estate tax law affect my plan?
The One Big Beautiful Budget Act made the elevated federal estate tax exemption permanent at $15 million per individual, which reduces the immediate pressure of transfer tax planning for most Arkansas families. But estate tax has not disappeared from the planning conversation. The exemption can change with future legislation, and clients with growing estates — particularly those with appreciating farms, business interests, or real estate — may approach or exceed the threshold over time. For many clients, the current environment shifts emphasis toward income tax basis planning, but transfer tax considerations remain part of a complete plan. If your existing plan was built primarily around transfer tax minimization strategies, a review can help ensure it still reflects your current situation and the full range of planning priorities.
What is stepped-up basis and why does it matter?
When you die owning an appreciated asset, your heir’s cost basis in that asset is generally reset to its fair market value at the date of your death. That means they can sell it without paying capital gains tax on the appreciation that occurred during your lifetime. For a farm, a business, or real estate with significant growth, the tax savings can be substantial. How your estate plan is structured affects whether your heirs capture this benefit fully — which is why basis planning is now a central part of how we design estate plans.
What happens to my farm or business if I die without a plan?
Without a plan, Arkansas intestacy law determines who inherits — which may not align with your wishes and almost certainly does not account for the operational realities of a farm or business. Equally important, there is no mechanism for an orderly transition of management. A surviving spouse or children may inherit an interest in a business they cannot run, triggering a forced sale or family conflict that could have been avoided entirely with a succession plan.
Can a family LLC help protect my assets and reduce estate taxes?
A family LLC can accomplish both goals when properly structured. It centralizes management, facilitates discounted gifting of minority interests, and provides creditor protection. But it must be maintained as a genuine operating entity — with proper formation, capitalization, annual meetings, and separate finances — to withstand scrutiny. We work closely with your CPA to make sure the structure is both legally sound and practically functional.
How often should I review my estate plan?
We encourage clients to review their plans when significant life events occur — marriage, divorce, birth of a child or grandchild, death of a beneficiary or named fiduciary, major changes in assets, or a move to another state. As a baseline, we recommend a review at least every three years. Given the recent changes in federal estate tax law, clients with existing plans built around the prior exemption landscape should consider scheduling a review sooner rather than later.
Schedule a Consultation
Estate planning is a continuous process, not just a one-time transaction. The plan we create today should adapt over time as your family expands, your assets evolve, and legal regulations change. We collaborate with your financial advisors, CPAs, and other trusted professionals to ensure all aspects of your plan function seamlessly together.
If you are ready to protect what you have built, we would welcome the opportunity to start the conversation.
Call (501) 975-6266 or Contact Us to schedule a consultation.