Estate Planning 2026: The $15 Million OBBBA Exemption and What It Means for Your Legacy

# Estate Planning 2026: The $15 Million OBBBA Exemption and What It Means for Your Legacy

> **Quick answer:** The One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently raised the federal estate tax exemption to $15 million per person (up from $13.99 million in 2025) starting January 1, 2026. Married couples can now transfer up to $30 million tax-free. The exemption is indexed to inflation annually, making rushed "use it or lose it" gifting strategies largely obsolete — and opening the door for smarter, long-term legacy planning.

Estate planning 2026 looks fundamentally different than it did just a year ago. The OBBBA's permanent $15 million exemption threshold ended years of legislative uncertainty — and understanding exactly what changed could save your family hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes.

## What Changed: The OBBBA's $15 Million Estate Tax Exemption

For years, high-net-worth families lived under the shadow of an expiring tax clock. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 had temporarily doubled the estate tax exemption, but that increase was set to sunset — dropping the threshold roughly in half at the end of 2025.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law on July 4, 2025, erased that sunset. Effective January 1, 2026, the federal estate and gift tax exemption is now **permanently set at $15 million per individual** — up from $13.99 million in 2025.