1.  Annual exclusion gifts allow you to give away an amount of money each year without having to pay any taxes on it.

This is an easy option to reduce the estate amount subject to estate tax. The savings can add up with multiple recipients receiving an annual gift. Yes, we can give away parts of our estate now.

2.  Marital Deduction/QTIP Trusts (qualified terminable interest property trust) can pass your estate to your spouse tax-free.

This type of trust helps protect your spouse's inheritance from creditors. You can define how much of your estate goes to your spouse and make sure those funds will be distributed according to your wishes. This puts off the estate tax until the spouse's death, allowing the estate more time to grow.

3.   Use or lose your unified credit amount before it is reduced in 2025.

The unified credit amount is what you can give away to your heirs tax-free. Now is the time to take advantage of the higher limits. If you don't use it all up before 2025, the eligible amount will be reduced. Today is the time to take action on this.

4.  Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust.

With this trust, you can pass on your life insurance policy to your beneficiaries without having to pay estate taxes on it. This irrevocable life insurance trust is set up while you are living. Plan wisely, as this trust is irrevocable. You can't "undo" this. You want to get it right the first time.

5.  Spousal Lifetime Access Trust.

This is an irrevocable trust that transfers wealth and assets outside of the estate. The difference is that a properly structured trust can give the donor some limited access to the trust's assets. A big benefit is that the appreciation of the assets after the original funding is also excluded from the estate.

6.  Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts.

This irrevocable trust allows you to give assets away so that they will not be included in your estate. You are responsible for paying the income taxes the trust incurs, but the trust's assets can grow outside of your estate. And, the trust's assets can grow faster as you pay any income tax the trust incurs.

7.  Captive Insurance Companies (owned by a trust that will not be includible in the estate of the deceased.)

This is a more complex, but effective option that takes advantage of the current tax laws by creating a small, captive insurance company. You can pay reasonable insurance premiums to this newly formed company that gets special tax incentives. This entity can be for the benefit of children, grandchildren, etc., and may escape the generation and gift tax.

8.  Discounted Gifts (gifts of a minority interest in various firms, corporations, partnerships, and LLCs.)

Minority interests in assets are lower in value than full ownership. Why? Because minority interests may have no control, or may be difficult to market or sell. Since any buyer would discount the value of these assets because they are a minority interest, it is possible to transfer these interests at "fair market value" which allows a bigger gift at a lower valuation.

9.  Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs).

You can place assets in a GRAT, an irrevocable trust. This trust pays you a fixed annuity payment. Upon the expiration of the trust period, the remainder of the trust's assets will go to the beneficiary of the trust with little or no gift tax liability.

10. Charitable Remainder Trusts.

This is an irrevocable trust where assets are placed into the trust, and then paid back to you or others at a fixed rate for life. Upon the initial funding of this trust, you receive certain tax deductions. At the termination of the trust, the remaining assets will go to charity. This trust removes these assets from your estate.

11. Qualified Domestic Trust.

If your surviving spouse is not a US citizen, your estate is not allowed any marital deduction. The Qualified Domestic Trust comes to the rescue. Now your estate is allowed to claim the unlimited marital deduction. Then, upon the death of the surviving spouse, the trust’s assets are included in the surviving spouse’s estate. If your spouse is not a US citizen, now is the time to consider this trust.

12. Establishing your residence in a state that does not have an estate or inheritance tax.

Many states do not have an estate or inheritance tax, and by establishing your residence in these states, you can avoid having to pay state estate taxes on your wealth when it passes down to beneficiaries. If you are married, your spouse can also establish residency in one of these "non-tax" states, which will allow their assets to pass to beneficiaries without being taxed as well.

13. ???

These first 12 methods are basic. For larger estates, more sophisticated planning strategies for funding and tax planning is necessary. These, of course, are case specific.