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Compliance

Trust and Estate Tax

For fiduciaries, families, and advisors managing trust reporting, estate administration, and long-horizon planning.

The problem

Trust reporting and estate administration reward continuity and punish improvisation. Trust & Estate Tax coordinates fiduciary returns, distribution reporting, and long-horizon planning so the people responsible are not reconstructing the position each year.

Who it’s for

Built for a specific kind of decision.

  • Fiduciaries managing trust reporting and estate administration
  • High-net-worth families coordinating tax across trusts and generations
  • Advisors who need a tax counterpart aligned with a long-horizon plan

Scope of work

What the engagement covers.

Fiduciary returns

Coordination of fiduciary return filings with the structure and intent behind them.

Distribution reporting

Distribution reporting handled accurately and consistently across reporting periods.

Estate administration

The tax matters of estate administration managed alongside the broader settlement.

Advisor coordination

Tax aligned with the trustees, counsel, and wealth advisors already at the table.

How Fortress works

One method, applied to this work.

The Fortress Hold Method is our way of turning complex tax facts into durable positions — a deliberate, five-step sequence built to hold under audit, professional review, and time.

This work is built for the long horizon — the same advisors stay with the structure as it moves through years, generations, and changes in law.

  1. 01Define the facts
  2. 02Evaluate exposure
  3. 03Build the structure
  4. 04Coordinate execution
  5. 05Monitor change over time

Related insights

Analysis

2026 · 9 min

The $15 Million Exemption Is Permanent: Why Pre-Sunset Bypass Trusts and SLATs May Now Work Against Your Clients

OBBBA made the estate, gift, and GST exemption permanent at $15 million per person, ending the multiyear sunset rush that drove private-client planning since 2022. The cliff is gone, but the structures built to beat it remain: formula-funded credit shelter trusts that mechanically over-fund the bypass and forfeit a second basis step-up, aggressive SLATs and IDGTs that now carry grantor-trust income-tax drag for no transfer-tax purpose, and disclaimer plans whose default has quietly become outright passage. The right response is not to re-announce the number but to re-read the documents against it.

Read insight

Analysis

2026 · 4 min

The Estate Exemption Cliff Is Gone: Planning at a Permanent $15 Million

For two years, estate planning ran against a clock: the federal exemption was scheduled to roughly halve at the end of 2025. OBBBA removed that clock. The basic exclusion amount is $15 million per person for decedents dying in 2026, indexed going forward, and made permanent. The use-it-or-lose-it pressure that defined recent planning is gone — but "permanent" is a statutory word, not a constitutional one, and the case for using exemption has not disappeared with the deadline.

Read insight

Analysis

2025 · 5 min

The $15 Million Estate Exemption Is Here to Stay: Rethinking Transfer-Tax Planning After OBBBA

For years, families with transfer-tax exposure planned against a cliff: the elevated estate and gift exemption was scheduled to be cut roughly in half after 2025, and the watchword was "use it or lose it." The One Big Beautiful Bill Act removed the cliff. The exemption is permanently set at $15 million per individual, and the IRS has now confirmed the 2026 figure. The planning question changes accordingly — from racing a deadline to building deliberately at a higher, stable exemption.

Read insight

Related industries

Sector environments where this work most often changes the answer.

All industries

Start here

Start with the situation, not the trust and estate tax brochure.

We begin by defining the facts and the timeline before recommending scope. If trust and estate tax is the right fit, we will say so — and if it is not, we will say that too.

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A licensed CPA firm with CPAs on staff. Typical first response within one business day.