The $1.5 Million Estate Planning Error You Can’t Make

The $1.5 Million Estate Planning Error You Can’t Make

A single oversight in estate planning can cost families millions—and that’s exactly what happened to Billy Rowland’s heirs. Despite a lifetime of hard work building a $26 million estate, a mistake on his late wife’s estate-tax return meant they lost the ability to use her unused $3.7 million tax exclusion. The result? An extra $1.5 million in taxes they didn’t need to pay. This case is a stark warning: for wealthy couples, the rules for preserving both spouses’ estate-tax exemptions—known as portability—are strict, and the IRS won’t give second chances if the paperwork isn’t perfect.

📖 Read the full Wall Street Journal article by Ashlea Ebeling here to see exactly what went wrong, why the Tax Court sided with the IRS, and what you can do to avoid the same fate.