Accounting
Trusts that could help wealthy clients’ estate plans
The end of
A charitable remainder unitrust or annuity trust could help inherited individual retirement account heirs push back the additional income
Two of the strategies for the consideration of financial advisors, tax professionals and their clients come with especially timely components. Implementation of the
“Every client is going to have different preferences and priorities. When I talk to clients about their financial planning, we want to make sure that they have enough assets to support their lifestyles and potential changes to their lifestyles over time,” White said in an interview. “When they pass, they’ll have to make some choices there as to how their estate is structured.”
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White’s
“Establishing frameworks for managing family assets and making financial decisions is essential in generational estate planning,” White wrote. “This may involve creating family constitutions, establishing family offices and
For some wealthier clients, the influx of their deceased parent’s IRA may loom large in their overall taxes. Assigning an IRA to a charitable remainder unitrust or a charitable remainder annuity trust with the heir as the beneficiary would remove the applicability of the new 10-year rule and delay that income for as much as 25 or 35 years, according to White. Clients with heavy holdings of highly appreciated stock could use these trusts as a means of spreading out their capital gains over a longer time span, too.
The clients can decide how much of the trust will transfer to the charity of their choice and the amount that will go to their heir. The annuity version provides fixed distributions, while the unitrust enables additional contributions after setting up the trust and payments based on an annual revaluation of the assets. IRS rules state that the trusts have to remove between 5% and 50% of the assets each year.
Savings “from a tax-planning standpoint” stem from “being able to spread that out over multiple decades versus 10 years,” which is especially handy for clients in the top brackets during prime earning years, White said. “They don’t want to take the IRA distribution over the last 10 years of their working careers. They would rather delay it.”
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Clients receiving qualified small business stock could use a non-grantor trust that, unlike a grantor entity, gets its own exclusion from capital gains taxes, White noted.
The trusts bring protection from lawsuits and creditors, with a “simple version” that is “required to distribute all annual income to beneficiaries, must retain trust principal and cannot make gifts to charitable organizations” or a “complex” type that “may accumulate income, distribute trust principal and make charitable gifts,” he wrote in the guide. The client who set up the trust gives up control of the assets to an independent trustee, but the entity represents an irrevocable, finished transfer outside of their estate that becomes a separate taxpayer.
For younger holders of startup company stock as founders or early employees or other clients “who are concerned around the future growth in their estate,” a grantor retained annuity trust can remove the appreciation from the equation, White noted.
The short-term entities of two to four years return the contributed assets plus interest to most grantors who can then forward them into a new grantor retained annuity trust. The appreciation flows to the trust’s beneficiary, who can keep those assets in another trust. In the process, the grantor avoids using any portion of their lifetime exemption for gift and estate taxes.
In thinking through the many available strategies, advisors and their clients must decide how much their households will need for the day-to-day and foreseeable future, the extent they expect beneficiaries to find their own sources of income when they grow into adulthood and the level of charitable giving they would like to set aside to chosen causes, according to White.
Each topic and strategy evokes specific questions about their goals and the particular requirements for the underlying trust entity. For example, the grantor retained annuity trust entails legal expenses and repeated valuations that add up — except when compared to the price of a 40% tax haircut on the largest estates, White said.
“There are some costs, certainly, to each time you set up these GRATs,” he said. “The math pencils out pretty well when you consider the long-term benefits for clients and their families.”
Jody Padar, an author and speaker known as “The Radical CPA,” and Katie Tolin, a growth strategist for CPAs, together launched a training and technology platform called XcelLabs.
XcelLabs provides solutions to help accountants use artificial technology fluently and strategically. The Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs and CPA Crossings joined with Padar and Tolin as strategic partners and investors.
“To reinvent the profession, we must start by training the professional who can then transform their firms,” Padar said in a statement. “By equipping people with data and insights that help them see things differently, they can provide better advice to their clients and firm.”
The platform includes XcelLabs Academy, a series of educational online courses on the basics of AI, being a better advisor, leadership and practice management; Navi, a proprietary tool that uses AI to help accountants turn unstructured data like emails, phone calls and meetings into insights; and training and consulting services. These offerings are currently in beta testing.
“Accountants know they need to be more advisory, but not everyone can figure out how to do it,” Tolin said in a statement. “Couple that with the fact that AI will be doing a lot of the lower-level work accountants do today, and we need to create that next level advisor now. By showing accountants how to unlock patterns in their actions and turn client conversations into emotionally intelligent advice, we can create the accounting professional of the future.”
“AI is transforming how CPAs work, and XcelLabs is focused on helping the profession evolve with it,” PICPA CEO Jennifer Cryder said in a statement. “At PICPA, we’re proud to support a mission that aligns so closely with ours: empowering firms to use AI not just for efficiency, but to drive growth, value and long-term relevance.”
The accountant the world urgently needs has evolved far beyond the traditional role we recognized just a few years ago.
The transformation of the accounting profession is not merely an anticipated change; it is a pressing reality that is currently shaping business decisions, academic programs and the expected contributions of professionals. Yet, in many areas, accounting education stubbornly clings to outdated, overly technical models that fail to connect with the actual demands of the market. We must confront a critical question: If we continue to train accountants solely to file tax reports, are we truly equipping them for the challenges of today’s world?
This shift in mindset extends beyond individual countries or educational systems; it is a global movement. The recent announcement of the
The CIMA/CGMA proposal for 2026 is not just a curriculum update; it is a powerful manifesto. This new program positions analytical thinking, strategic business partnering and technology application at the core of accounting education. It unequivocally highlights sustainability, aligning with IFRS S1 and S2, and expands the accountant’s responsibilities beyond mere numbers to encompass conscious leadership, environmental impact and corporate governance.
The current changes in the accounting profession underscore an urgent shift in expectations from both educators and employers. Today, companies of all sizes and industries demand accountants who can do far more than interpret balance sheets. They expect professionals who grasp the deeper context behind the numbers, identify inconsistencies, anticipate potential issues before they escalate into losses, and act decisively as a bridge between data and decision making.
To meet these expectations, a radical mindset shift is essential. There are firms still operating on autopilot, mindlessly repeating tasks with minimal critical analysis. Likewise, many academic programs continue to treat accounting as purely a technical discipline, disregarding the vital elements of reflection, strategy and behavioral insight. This outdated approach creates a significant mismatch. While the world forges ahead, parts of the accounting profession remain stuck in the past.
The consequences of this shift are already becoming evident. The demand for compliance, transparency and sustainability now applies not only to large corporations but also to small and mid-sized businesses. Many of these organizations rely on professionals ill-equipped to drive the necessary changes, putting both business performance and the reputation of the profession at risk.
The positive news is that accountants who are ready to thrive in this new era do not necessarily need additional degrees. What they truly need is a commitment to awareness, a dedication to continuous learning, and the courage to step beyond their comfort zones. The future of accounting is here, and it is firmly rooted in analytical, strategic and human-oriented perspectives. The 2026 curriculum is a clear indication of the changes underway. Those who fail to think critically and holistically will be left behind.
In contrast, accountants who see the big picture, understand the ripple effects of their decisions, and actively contribute to the financial and ethical health of organizations will undeniably remain indispensable, anywhere in the world.
Congressional Republicans are siding with Donald Trump in the messy divorce between the president and Elon Musk, an optimistic sign for eventual passage of a tax cut bill at the root of the two billionaires’ public feud.
Lawmakers are largely taking their cues from Trump and sticking by the $3 trillion bill at the center of the White House’s economic agenda. Musk, the biggest political donor of the 2024 cycle, has threatened to help primary anyone who votes for the legislation, but lawmakers are betting that staying in the president’s good graces is the safer path to political survival.
“The tax bill is not in jeopardy. We are going to deliver on that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Friday.
“I’ll tell you what — do not doubt, don’t second guess and do not challenge the President of the United States Donald Trump,” he added. “He is the leader of the party. He’s the most consequential political figure of our time.”
A fight between Trump and Musk exploded into public view this week. The sparring started with the tech titan calling the president’s tax bill a “disgusting abomination,” but quickly escalated to more personal attacks and Trump threatening to cancel all federal contracts and subsidies to Musk’s companies, such as Tesla Inc. and SpaceX which have benefitted from government ties.
Republicans on Capitol Hill, who had — until recently — publicly embraced Musk, said they weren’t swayed by the billionaire’s criticism that the bill cost too much. Lawmakers have refuted official estimates of the package, saying that the tax cuts for households, small businesses and politically important groups — including hospitality and hourly workers — will generate enough economic growth to offset the price tag.
“I don’t tell my friend Elon, I don’t argue with him about how to build rockets, and I wish he wouldn’t argue with me about how to craft legislation and pass it,” Johnson told CNBC earlier Friday.
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington told reporters that House lawmakers are focused on working with the Senate as it revises the bill to make sure the legislation has the political support in both chambers to make it to Trump’s desk for his signature.
“We move past the drama and we get the substance of what is needed to make the modest improvements that can be made,” he said.
House fiscal hawks said that they hadn’t changed their prior positions on the legislation based on Musk’s statements. They also said they agree with GOP leaders that there will be other chances to make further spending cuts outside the tax bill.
Representative Tom McClintock, a fiscal conservative, said “the bill will pass because it has to pass,” adding that both Musk and Trump needed to calm down. “They both need to take a nap,” he said.
Even some of the House bill’s most vociferous critics appeared resigned to its passage. Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who voted against the House version, predicted that despite Musk’s objections, the Senate will make only small changes.
“The speaker is right about one thing. This barely passed the House. If they muck with it too much in the Senate, it may not pass the House again,” he said.
Trump is pressuring lawmakers to move at breakneck speed to pass the tax-cut bill, demanding they vote on the bill before the July 4 holiday. The president has been quick to blast critics of the bill — including calling Senator Rand Paul
As the legislation worked its way through the House last month, Trump took to social media to criticize holdouts and invited undecided members to the White House to compel them to support the package. It passed by one vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune — who is planning to unveil his chamber’s version of the bill as soon as next week — said his timeline is unmoved by Musk.
“We are already pretty far down the trail,” he said.
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