Estate Tax Planning in Thousand Oaks

Estate Tax Planning in Thousand Oaks

California has no estate tax. That is the good news. The federal estate tax is real, but as of 2026 it applies to far fewer families than people assume. The federal exemption is now $15,000,000 per person and $30,000,000 per married couple, with no scheduled sunset under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and inflation indexing after 2026. Most Thousand Oaks households are not exposed. The families who are: business owners whose company keeps appreciating in value, single decedents who only get one exemption instead of two, couples where one spouse is not a U.S. citizen and cannot use the unlimited marital deduction, and anyone holding real property outside California in a state that still taxes estates.

I am an estate planning attorney serving Thousand Oaks and all of Ventura County. I do this work over Zoom or by phone, and a mobile notary comes to you for the signing. I will tell you whether you actually have a federal estate tax problem right now, and whether your situation is one of the ones that still needs planning around it. I will not run up a planning bill on a problem that does not exist for you. For the rest of the plan, start with estate planning in Thousand Oaks.

Who actually has an exposure problem today

The federal exemption is $15,000,000 per person as of 2026, with no scheduled sunset under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (indexed for inflation after 2026), which means a married couple can pass $30,000,000 before federal estate tax applies. Under IRC §2010(c), that exemption amount is what actually shields your estate from tax, and it is portable between spouses if the paperwork is filed correctly at the first death. At that level, very few Thousand Oaks families have a current tax problem. Where it gets more complicated: Amgen executives with significant equity compensation and vested stock, business owners with a company worth several million that keeps appreciating, and families who have been accumulating real estate for decades. Add a $1 million home, a $2 million retirement account, a $500,000 business interest, and $2 million in life insurance, and you are at $5.5 million, comfortably under the threshold for a married couple. A single person with those same assets plus a growing business, or a family with property outside California in a state that still taxes estates, gets there faster.

The tools that actually work

Irrevocable trusts remove assets from your taxable estate while allowing them to benefit your family. A spousal lifetime access trust lets your spouse benefit from assets while removing them from both of your estates over time, and for a married couple it works alongside the unlimited marital deduction under IRC §2056, which lets you defer all estate tax at the first spouse’s death regardless of the amount involved. A grantor retained annuity trust works well when you have an asset expected to appreciate significantly. Annual gifting programs let you move money out of your estate over time without gift tax if you stay within annual exclusion limits. These strategies are not secret or aggressive. They are the standard toolkit, and the earlier you start, the more flexibility you have.

Tool	What it does
Irrevocable trust	Removes assets from your taxable estate while allowing them to benefit your family.
Spousal lifetime access trust	Lets your spouse benefit from assets while removing them from both of your estates over time.
Grantor retained annuity trust	Works well when you have an asset expected to appreciate significantly.
Annual gifting	Moves money out of your estate over time without gift tax if you stay within annual exclusion limits.

Basis step-up and why some families should not over-plan

IRC §1014 gives most inherited assets a stepped-up basis to fair market value at death, which means your heirs can sell inherited stock or real estate and pay little or no capital gains tax on the appreciation that happened during your lifetime. This is a huge benefit that a family well under the $15,000,000 exemption should not undermine by moving assets into irrevocable structures that sacrifice the step-up to chase an estate tax savings they do not need. I see this mistake regularly: someone locks assets into a trust that removes the step-up benefit to solve a tax problem they never actually had. Knowing whether you are actually exposed changes which tools make sense.

Equity compensation and why Thousand Oaks professionals need a different valuation approach

Restricted stock units, stock options, and deferred compensation are common at Amgen and at other Conejo Valley employers, and they complicate estate tax planning in ways a simple house-and-brokerage estate does not have to deal with. What happens to unvested equity at death depends on the plan: many plans forfeit unvested awards, and an award that is paid out to your estate or heirs is generally income in respect of a decedent, taxed as income with no stepped-up basis the way appreciated stock gets. Planning for a concentrated equity position sometimes means structuring lifetime gifts or trusts around shares that have already vested, while leaving unvested grants alone since there is often little to plan around until they vest. I look at the full compensation picture, not just the house and the brokerage account, before recommending a structure.

When to plan even if you are not there yet

The best time to implement estate tax strategies is when you do not need them urgently, because that is when you have the most options. Irrevocable trusts are funded when asset values are low or when you have the cash flow to make the transfers. GRATs are locked in at interest rates that change monthly. If you wait until you are clearly over the threshold, you may have missed the most efficient window. For Conejo Valley executives and professionals, high-net-worth estate planning and asset protection fold naturally into this conversation.

Estate tax against probate cost at three Conejo Valley estate sizes

For most Thousand Oaks families, probate costs more than the estate tax. The federal basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 for 2026 (26 U.S.C. § 2010(c)(3)), and California has no estate tax. The probate fee schedule in Prob. Code §§ 10800 and 10810 applies from the first dollar of an estate that goes through court.

Estate value	Federal estate tax, single filer	Probate fee schedule, each of executor and attorney	Combined
$1,035,291 (typical Thousand Oaks home)	$0	$23,353	$46,706
$3,000,000 (example)	$0	$43,000	$86,000
$5,500,000 (example)	$0	$68,000	$136,000

The typical home value is the Zillow Home Value Index for August 2026, and the other two rows are my examples. The federal column assumes no prior taxable gifts. The fee columns are figured on gross value with no deduction for a mortgage (§ 10810(b)) and show what the schedule allows, not what a family will pay. At these sizes the tax problem is absent and the probate cost is real. A funded trust removes the schedule, and the trust drafting starts to matter for taxes only as an estate approaches $15,000,000 per person. The estate tax calculator shows where your numbers fall.

The tax that does reach a Thousand Oaks heir: reassessment

California charges no inheritance tax, but a county property tax reassessment can cost an heir more each year than a federal estate tax that never applies. Under Rev. & Tax. Code § 63.2, a child who makes an inherited home a principal residence within one year, and files for the homeowners’ exemption within a year, keeps the parent’s taxable value. Market value above the parent’s taxable value plus $1,044,586 gets added (the cap for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027). The table uses a parent taxable value of $300,000, which is my example and not a Ventura County figure.

Market value at the transfer	Parent’s taxable value plus the cap	Value added	Child’s new taxable value
$1,035,291 (typical home)	$1,344,586	$0	$300,000
$2,000,000	$1,344,586	$655,414	$955,414

If the child rents the home out or doesn’t move in, the exclusion doesn’t apply and the home is reassessed at market value. That matters for the planning question people ask about basis. A stepped-up basis helps when the heir sells, while the reassessment hits the heir who keeps the home. The step-up in basis guide and the Proposition 19 calculator show both sides.

Gifts, portability, and the returns you file when you owe nothing

The annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient (IRS). Gifts to one person above that amount fall outside the annual exclusion, so I keep a running total for clients who give to children and grandchildren. Most Thousand Oaks families are nowhere near needing an estate tax return. The portability election is the reason some file one anyway.

Portability lets a surviving spouse add the deceased spouse’s unused exclusion to their own, and it isn’t automatic. The executor of the first spouse’s estate has to file an estate tax return that computes the unused amount and makes the election, and the return has to be filed on time (26 U.S.C. § 2010(c)(5)(A)). Suppose one spouse dies with $6,000,000 of assets, all left to the surviving spouse. No tax is due at that death. If the return is filed and the election made, the unused exclusion can add up to $15,000,000 to the survivor’s own (§ 2010(c)(2) and (4)). Skipping the return can cost the family that extra exclusion later. Portability in California covers the mechanics.

Questions Thousand Oaks clients ask

Does California tax estates?

No. California eliminated its estate tax years ago. Only the federal tax applies, and only above the federal exemption amount, which is $15,000,000 per person as of 2026, with no scheduled sunset and inflation indexing after 2026 (IRC §2010(c)).

The exemption is now permanent. Does earlier planning still make sense?

Yes. Irrevocable trusts funded under prior law are not undone by the exemption becoming permanent. If your estate is comfortably under $15,000,000 per person, some of those structures may no longer be necessary, and it is worth a review to see what still fits. But asset protection, income tax efficiency, and control over how assets pass to the next generation are reasons those structures still make sense even without an exemption problem.

Is life insurance counted in my estate?

Yes, if you own the policy. A properly structured irrevocable life insurance trust removes the death benefit from your taxable estate entirely. Many people do not realize their policy is adding to their estate tax exposure.

Will an irrevocable trust cost my kids the stepped-up basis?

It depends on the trust. Some irrevocable trusts are designed to keep assets includible enough in your estate to preserve the step-up under IRC §1014, and some are not. This is exactly the kind of detail that gets missed in cookie-cutter planning, and it is worth reviewing before you sign anything irrevocable.

If I owe no federal estate tax, do I still need to file a return when my spouse dies?

Possibly. The surviving spouse can use the deceased spouse’s unused exclusion only if the executor files an estate tax return that computes the amount and makes the election on a timely return (26 U.S.C. § 2010(c)(5)(A)). A return isn’t required to owe tax, and skipping it forfeits the election.

Is the Proposition 19 reassessment an estate or inheritance tax?

No. It’s a property tax matter handled by the county assessor. California has no estate or inheritance tax, and the federal estate tax applies above $15,000,000 per person for 2026. Reassessment can still raise an heir’s annual property tax when an inherited home doesn’t qualify for the exclusion in Rev. & Tax. Code § 63.2.

What’s the gift tax annual exclusion for 2026?

$19,000 per recipient, according to the IRS. Each spouse has their own $19,000 exclusion per recipient. Gifts to one person above the annual exclusion fall outside it, and I track them for clients who give regularly.