Estate Planning Tax Considerations for Kansas City Families
Understand estate tax exemptions, gift tax strategies, and wealth transfer planning for 2026.
Estate planning is about more than documents. It is about making sure the wealth you have built reaches the people and causes you care about — in the most tax-efficient way possible.
At Windward, we help Kansas City families navigate the financial and tax dimensions of estate planning — always in coordination with your estate planning attorney, who handles the legal drafting and document interpretation. Our role is to make sure your investment strategy, tax planning, and estate goals are all pointing in the same direction.
Here is what we are focused on with clients right now.
The 2026 Estate Tax Landscape
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, permanently increased the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax exemption to $15 million per individual — $30 million for married couples — effective January 1, 2026. The exemption is indexed for inflation going forward and carries no sunset date.
This is meaningful news for Kansas City families. The uncertainty that drove many 2025 planning conversations — around a potential exemption sunset — is now resolved. Families can plan more thoughtfully, knowing the rules are not scheduled to change overnight.
That said, 'permanent' only lasts until Congress acts again. High-net-worth families should use this window of clarity to review and strengthen their plans — not assume the work is done.
Key Strategies Worth Understanding
Not all of these strategies are right for every family — and some involve legal structures that require an estate planning attorney. But understanding which concepts apply to your situation is exactly what a planning conversation is for.
Annual gift tax exclusion. In 2026, you can give up to $19,000 per recipient per year without affecting your lifetime exemption. For a married couple, that is $38,000 per recipient. Consistent annual gifting can meaningfully reduce the size of a taxable estate over time — no legal documents required for straightforward cash gifts.
Lifetime gift tax exemption. Even with the higher permanent exemption, lifetime gifting can still make sense — particularly for families whose estates exceed $15 million, or where business interests or real estate may appreciate significantly. Transferring assets now at today's values can remove future appreciation from your taxable estate. Your estate planning attorney can advise on the appropriate legal structure.
Irrevocable trusts. For estates above the exemption threshold, structures like ILITs, GRATs, and SLATs remain valuable tools. Each serves a different purpose and requires careful legal drafting by your estate planning attorney. We work alongside your attorney to ensure your investment and tax planning support the trust structure once it is in place.
Direct tuition payments. Payments made directly to an educational institution on someone's behalf are not subject to gift tax — with no dollar limit. This is one of the most underused strategies in estate planning, and it can be layered on top of annual exclusion gifts for even greater impact.
Beneficiary designations. These are one of the most important and most overlooked elements of a well-coordinated estate plan. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and other assets pass outside of a will — which means they take precedence regardless of what your will says. We review these with clients as part of every planning conversation.
Kansas and Missouri: A Meaningful Advantage
Neither Kansas nor Missouri imposes a state estate tax or inheritance tax. For Kansas City area families, that is a meaningful advantage over residents of states like New York or Illinois — and it means federal planning is where the focus belongs.
The Windward Approach
Estate planning works best when your financial plan, tax strategy, and legal documents are all pointing in the same direction. At Windward, we work alongside your estate planning attorney to make sure your investment and tax planning are aligned with your broader estate goals — though we leave legal drafting and document interpretation to your counsel.
If you have not reviewed your overall financial plan recently, or if life has changed since you last did, we would welcome the chance to start that conversation.
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