tax on income exceeding $ 1 million.

In these states, sound tax and estate planning may mean moving to a state with better weather and a fairer tax regime.

5. Slicing And Dicing The Long-Term Irrevocable Trust

Heckerling 2026 offered several sessions exploring the fragmentation of trust law. You likely remember the old public service announcement:“ It’ s 10 p. m. Do you know where your children are?” The first program here asked,“ It’ s 10 p. m., do you know where your trust is sited?”

The fact is, in 2026 a trust may have a grantor in one state, one or more trustees in multiple other states and beneficiaries in still other states, while holding assets in other states as well.

Much like the iconic Veg-O-Matic food processor sold on TV in the 1960s( It slices! It dices!), modern trust law has been transmogrified into an exercise in slicing and dicing trust provisions for new, fresh

and better results. This year’ s Ronco-inspired presentation at Heckerling was called“ Splitting the Difference— Structuring and Restructuring Interests in Trusts.” Here, estate planning attorneys Diana Zeydel of Greenberg Traurig and Jonathan Blattmachr of Peak Trust Company noted the increased popularity of long-duration irrevocable trusts, which are in favor at least in part because they help funders avoid generation-skipping transfer taxes. The two experts said that if“ long-duration trusts are here to stay, the need and desire to change trusts after creation will increase.”( They then offered a purposeful and detailed disquisition with savvy guidance for decanting assets, amending trusts, and possibly terminating trusts early or restructuring them, among myriad other stratagems and techniques for giving an aging and decrepit trust an ambush makeover.)

However, consider a counter-argument from a presenter at last year’ s( 2025) conference, attorney David Baker, a partner of the law firm now known as McDermott Will & Schulte. According to Baker, the typical testator or trust grantor does not want trustees and heirs to completely rewrite the estate plan after the testator has departed this vale of tears. In his presentation, called“ Bulletproofing Your Estate Plan,” Baker offered a lengthy explanation of things you can do to make your irrevocable trust actually, you know, irrevocable.

Juxtaposing these two presentations, I briefly imagined a new Heckerling-inspired TV game show where one team tries to structure an irrevocable trust and the other team then tries to completely rewrite it— but then, I realized, we already have it. It’ s called estate planning in 2026.

JOSEPH B. DARBY III, ESQ., is an adjunct professor at the Boston University School of Law and the founding shareholder of Joseph Darby Law PC, a law firm that concentrates on sophisticated tax and estate planning for individuals and businesses.

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MARCH / APRIL 2026 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 49