Learn the best ways to invest for kids in 2026 using 529 plans, UTMA accounts, Roth IRAs, Trump accounts, and Bitcoin. Includes tax strategies, annual gifting, and estate planning tips.

For decades, estate planning for wealthy Americans centered on one question: how do we avoid the estate tax? But the landscape has changed dramatically. Recent federal tax law changes have pushed the federal estate and gift tax exemption to $15 million per person ($30 million for married couples) beginning in 2026. And this number is scheduled to increase on an inflation-adjusted basis going forward. That means most Americans - even many wealthy ones - will never pay federal estate tax at all. So if estate tax planning is no longer the primary issues for affluent American families, what is? Income tax planning.

Over the next decade, Millennials are expected to inherit tens of trillions of dollars from their Baby Boomer parents. This shift - colloquially referred to as “The Great Wealth Transfer” - will be one of the largest movements of private wealth in history. But the real story isn’t who inherits the wealth. It’s what happens to that wealth next.