For many high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, legacy planning goes beyond asset transfer. It’s about creating a lasting impact—one that reflects deeply held values and shapes the future in meaningful ways.
Gifting, as part of an overall wealth transfer plan, can influence how your clients’ wealth is utilized to meet their goals and values.
Whether it’s supporting philanthropic causes or passing wealth to family members strategically, gifting may allow families to witness the influence of their generosity in real time. More than a financial tool, gifting is a way to reinforce family connections, model values for future generations, and ensure wealth is used with intention.
Wealth Transfer Planning: Why Clients Should Consider Gifting
Unlike an inheritance that is passed on after death, gifting is a proactive way to transfer wealth during your client’s lifetime. It allows families to make an impact now, while reinforcing the values and goals that matter most. When thoughtfully integrated into a wealth transfer plan, gifting becomes more than a financial strategy; it’s a meaningful step toward preserving both wealth and family legacy.
In addition to supporting the transfer of wealth, gifting can serve as a catalyst for open and ongoing discussions about legacy. These conversations often help establish a stronger connection between generations and provide clarity around a family’s vision for the future.
The Meaningful Impact of Gifting Strategies
Integrating gifting into wealth transfer strategies offers both financial and personal benefits. Gifting may make smart financial sense and could create a thoughtful way to support loved ones, reinforce family values, and create lasting memories.
Take Advantage of Tax Benefits
Every year, a client can take advantage of this benefit by gifting money to family members tax-free. Per the IRS, the 2025 federal gift tax limit for individuals is $19,000 per recipient per year and $38,000 per recipient per year for married couples. To make this part of their family wealth transfer strategies, clients should work with their tax and financial planning professionals.
Witness Their Wealth in Action
Whether it’s philanthropic gifts or a transfer of assets to family members, gifting allows a client to see the impact of their wealth. Families often use gifts to fund shared experiences—such as travel, celebrations, or traditions—that become cherished memories. Gifting can also offer timely support during key life moments, like a grandchild’s wedding or a child’s first home purchase.
Gifting to charitable causes during life offers an opportunity to align a family’s wealth with the values they care most about—and can serve as a model for how future generations may continue to give back.
Develop a Stronger, Deeper Family Bond
Strategic gifting presents natural opportunities to communicate values, share stories, and pass along lessons that can’t be found in legal documents. With open dialogue, gifting becomes more than a transaction—it becomes a touchpoint for trust, understanding, and deeper connection.
Educate Beneficiaries on Managing Wealth
Thoughtful giving can also help prepare the next generation for future responsibilities. Receiving a gift, especially one tied to education, homeownership, or business investment, can foster financial literacy, responsibility, and gratitude.
Purposeful Family Wealth Transfer Strategies
When building a gifting strategy as part of an estate plan, thoughtful planning is key. Below are ways families can approach gifting with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
Prioritize Long-Term Financial Security
Before any gifting strategy is put into motion, it’s essential to ensure a client’s financial needs are fully accounted for, especially those related to retirement and long-term care. A strong foundation of financial stability provides peace of mind and allows for more intentional, lasting gifts.
Work with a Collaborative Team of Professionals
Both purposeful gifting and effective estate planning benefit from collaboration. A trusted team of professionals—legal, financial, and tax—can provide guidance that ensures gifting aligns with broader family objectives.
Beyond structuring plans, advisors can also help families facilitate open and productive conversations across generations. These dialogues are key to preserving family harmony, setting clear expectations, and creating shared ownership of the family’s long-term vision.
Communicate Purpose and Vision with Clarity
Open communication with family or gift recipients is vital to successful wealth transfer. Articulating the “why” behind a gift can reduce misunderstandings and deepen relationships.
Many families find value in creating a family mission statement—a shared vision that outlines values, intentions, and long-term goals. This guiding document can help inform not only gifting decisions but also broader estate planning efforts for years to come.
Consider the Benefits of Irrevocable Gift Trusts
For those seeking to provide structure or oversight regarding the use of gifts, irrevocable gift trusts can be an effective tool. These trusts help define the purpose of a gift, provide boundaries, and offer opportunities to educate beneficiaries about wealth management—fostering a sense of responsibility and stewardship in the process.
How Families Can Use Gifting to Pass Down More than Wealth
A couple who built a successful business wants to ensure their wealth reflects their values of education, connection, and giving back. By incorporating annual tax-free gifts to their children and grandchildren, they can support education, first homes, and shared family experiences, all while maintaining financial stability. These intentional gifts spark new family traditions and create opportunities for honest conversations about values, goals, and responsibility.
To provide structure and guidance, the couple works with their advisors to establish an irrevocable gift trust. This trust defines the purpose of each gift, supports financial education, and allows the family to stay aligned with their long-term estate plan. With Cumberland Trust serving as an independent trustee, the family gains an objective partner to oversee distributions, ensure compliance, and preserve harmony among generations.
How Cumberland Trust Supports Estate Planning Gifting Strategies
At Cumberland Trust, we understand that effective gifting is about more than transferring assets—it’s about preserving legacy, supporting family relationships, and aligning with long-term goals. As an independent corporate trustee, we partner closely with your client’s estate planning attorney(s) and financial advisors to ensure that gifting strategies are carried out with clarity and care.
Here’s how we support families and their advisory teams:
Customized Trust Solutions Aligned with Family Needs
No two families are alike. That’s why we offer a wide range of trust services designed to meet each client’s unique financial situation, family dynamics, and gifting goals. Our flexible approach means we can support a variety of personal trust structures.
Independent and Collaborative by Design
Our directed trust model separates asset management from trust administration, creating space for true collaboration. This structure allows each professional advisor—legal, financial, tax—to do what they do best, while we focus on trust oversight and administration with objectivity and precision.
Focused on Family Harmony and Clear Communication
Family dynamics can be complex, especially when wealth and gifting are involved. We help facilitate open, respectful conversations that clarify intentions and align expectations. Our role often includes navigating sensitive situations with professionalism and discretion, helping families preserve trust and harmony for the long term.
Lifetime gifting is about more than passing down wealth—it’s about passing down values, purpose, and connection. When approached with intention, it can be a powerful way to deepen relationships, prepare future generations, and support causes that reflect a family’s mission.
For additional information about how we can help support your clients’ estate planning strategies, contact Cumberland Trust.