What Your CPA Wishes You’d Ask About Wealth Transfer
A resource for financial advisors, CPAs, and attorneys serving business owner clients.
If you’re a CPA, attorney, or financial advisor who works with business owners, you may have noticed something concerning since the estate tax exemption was made permanent: your clients have stopped asking about wealth transfer.
The logic seems sound from their perspective. The exemption is nearly $14 million per person. The sunset is gone. Why plan for a tax that may never apply?
You know the answer. The question is how to restart the conversation.
The Questions Clients Should Be Asking (But Aren’t)
"If I died tomorrow, does my estate have the cash to execute my plan without selling the business?" This is the liquidity question, and it’s the one that separates adequate plans from robust ones. Even with zero federal estate tax liability, an illiquid estate can face millions in obligations—buy-sell payments, trust funding, heir equalization, state taxes, administrative costs. If the answer involves borrowing, selling assets, or “figuring it out,” the plan has a structural gap that the exemption doesn’t fix.
"What will my estate be worth when I actually die—not today?" Business owners think about their current net worth. Advisors need to think about their projected net worth at mortality. A $12 million estate growing at 7% annually becomes a $24 million estate in ten years and a $47 million estate in twenty. A plan that works today may be dangerously inadequate by the time it’s activated.
"Am I exposed to state estate taxes?" Twelve states and the District of Columbia impose estate taxes with exemptions far below the federal level. Massachusetts and Oregon tax estates above $1 million. New York’s cliff feature can eliminate the exemption entirely. For clients in these states, the federal exemption is largely irrelevant to their planning.
"What happens to my plan if Congress changes the law?" The exemption is permanent under current law—but “permanent” has a different meaning in the tax code than it does in everyday language. It has changed seven times in thirty years. Clients who have locked in the current exemption through strategic gifting and trust funding are protected. Clients who assumed the exemption would always be this high are exposed.
"Who owns my life insurance, and is it structured correctly?" Personally owned life insurance is included in the taxable estate. A policy intended to provide liquidity at death may instead be increasing the tax bill. This remains one of the most common and most correctable errors in estate planning.
"Are my estate plan, buy-sell agreement, and insurance coverage aligned?" These three elements are often drafted, funded, and reviewed by different advisors at different times. A buy-sell funded at a valuation that hasn’t been updated in a decade. A trust that doesn’t account for the insurance structure. Insurance that doesn’t match the current estate plan. These misalignments only surface at the worst possible moment.
How SSG Financial Group Supports the Advisory Team
We built our practice around the understanding that the best outcomes for business owners come from coordinated advisory teams—not from any single advisor working alone.
For CPAs, we provide scenario modeling across multiple exemption levels, premium financing analysis, and liquidity projections that integrate with your tax planning. For attorneys, we offer insurance design that aligns with trust structures, buy-sell terms, and entity planning. For financial advisors, we provide the guaranteed-liquidity and risk management components that complement investment-based strategies.
We are not looking to replace any member of the advisory team. We’re looking to fill the gap that exists when insurance and financial planning aren’t coordinated with the legal and tax work.
Restarting the Conversation
The permanent exemption removed one reason to plan. It didn’t remove the other five. If you have a client who is a business owner with an illiquid estate, a growing business, or exposure to state estate taxes—regardless of whether they’re above or below the federal threshold—the conversation about wealth transfer is just as important as it was before the exemption was made permanent.
SSG Financial Group is happy to join that conversation as a technical resource—running scenarios, modeling strategies, and providing the insurance expertise needed to complete the plan. Schedule a 20-minute consultation to discuss how we can support your clients’ planning.
Ready to evaluate your wealth transfer plan?
Schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation with SSG Financial Group to discuss your specific situation.
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Learn more at www.ssgfingrp.com
About SSG Financial Group
SSG Financial Group provides integrated insurance and financial planning solutions for business owners, high-net-worth families, and their advisory teams. Our focus areas include wealth transfer, business transition planning, ESOP repurchase liability funding, and executive benefits.
