Estate Planning

A will takes effect only when you die, and in Nevada it usually has to be proved in probate court before anything can be distributed. A revocable living trust holds title to your assets while you are alive, covers you if you become incapacitated, and lets your successor trustee distribute property without probate. Many Nevada plans use both.

What a will does. A Nevada will names who inherits, names the personal representative who settles your estate, and is the customary place to nominate a guardian for your minor children (NRS 159A.062). To be valid it must be in writing, signed by you, and attested by at least two competent witnesses (NRS 133.040). A will does not avoid probate. It is the instruction manual the probate court follows. In Clark County, that is the Eighth Judicial District Court, and the filings are public record.

What a revocable living trust does. You create the trust, serve as your own trustee, and keep complete control, so you can amend it or revoke it at any time. Because the trust, not you personally, holds title, three things change. If you become incapacitated, your successor trustee can manage trust assets immediately without a court guardianship. When you die, that same successor trustee distributes the trust property directly to your beneficiaries. And the terms stay private, because nothing is filed with the court.

They usually work together. A trust-based plan still includes a "pour-over" will. It catches anything you never retitled, and it carries your guardian nomination, which does not belong in a trust.

What tips the decision. Owning Nevada real property is the biggest factor. A Henderson home titled in your name alone will almost certainly require probate unless it is held in a trust or covered by a recorded deed upon death. Other factors: the total value of what you own relative to Nevada's probate thresholds, whether you want incapacity handled without a court, whether you have children from a prior relationship, whether you own property in another state (a trust can avoid a second, separate probate there), and how much you value privacy.

The catch. A trust only works for assets that are actually transferred into it. An unfunded trust is an expensive folder. See the funding question below.

There is no single price. What a Nevada estate plan costs depends on whether it is built around a will or a revocable trust, whether you are planning as an individual or a married couple, how much real estate you own and where it sits, and whether your family situation calls for protective or blended-family provisions. We quote a flat fee before you decide to hire us.

What moves the number up. Real property in Nevada and in other states; a business, rental portfolio, or LLC interests; children from a prior relationship or a blended family that needs its own structure; a beneficiary who receives needs-based public benefits and requires a special needs trust; asset-protection planning under Nevada's spendthrift trust statutes (NRS Chapter 166); federal estate tax exposure; and existing documents from another state that have to be reviewed before they can be replaced or amended.

What our flat fee includes. The initial consultation, the design meeting, drafting, a review of the draft with you, the signing appointment with a notary and witnesses, deed preparation for your Nevada real property, a certification of trust for your bank and title company (NRS 164.400), written funding instructions and beneficiary designation letters, and both a bound and a digital copy of the finished plan.

What is separate from attorney fees. Clark County Recorder fees for recording deeds, out-of-state counsel or recording costs for property outside Nevada, appraisals, and any accounting or tax return preparation.

The comparison that matters. The cost of planning is not measured against zero. It is measured against what your family pays later. A full Nevada probate involves court filings, published notice, a 90-day creditor claim period (NRS 147.040), and attorney compensation approved by the court under NRS 150.060, all paid out of the estate, with the case on a public docket for months.

Questions worth asking any firm. Is the fee flat or hourly? Does it include preparing and recording the deed to my house? Who is responsible for funding the trust, you or me? What does it cost to update the plan in three years?

Probate is required when assets are titled in your sole name with no surviving co-owner and no valid beneficiary designation. In Nevada the procedure depends on value: small estates can be handled by affidavit or a court set-aside, while larger ones require summary or full administration in the Eighth Judicial District Court.

Nevada's probate thresholds.

• Affidavit of entitlement (NRS 146.080). Available 40 days after death, with no Nevada real property in the estate. The gross value limit is $25,000 for most claimants and $150,000 for a surviving spouse.
• Set aside without administration (NRS 146.070). Available where the estate does not exceed $150,000, by petition filed at least 30 days after death.
• Summary administration (NRS 145.040). Available where gross value, after deducting encumbrances, does not exceed $500,000. Creditors have 60 days to file claims (NRS 145.060).
• General administration. Everything above that. Creditors have 90 days from mailing or first publication of the notice to creditors (NRS 147.040).

The tools that keep assets out of probate. A properly funded revocable living trust; current beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance; payable-on-death and transfer-on-death registrations on bank and brokerage accounts; community property with right of survivorship between spouses (NRS 111.064, and the instrument must expressly say so); joint tenancy with right of survivorship (NRS 111.065); and a deed upon death recorded during your lifetime (NRS 111.655 to 111.699).

Avoiding probate is not the same as avoiding administration. Your successor trustee still has to locate and value assets, obtain a tax identification number, pay final bills and taxes, file a final income tax return, and account to the beneficiaries. The difference is that this happens privately, on your family's schedule, without court supervision, publication, or a statutory creditor claim window.

One detail that surprises families. Nevada requires notice of the probate petition and the notice to creditors to be given to the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services (NRS 155.020(1)(a)), whether or not the decedent ever received Medicaid.

We do not quote a typical probate timeline, because it depends on the creditor period, whether real property must be sold, and whether anyone contests. We can give you a realistic range for your specific situation at a consultation.

Most Nevada adults need four things: a will, a durable financial power of attorney, a power of attorney for health care, and beneficiary designations that match the rest of the plan. A revocable living trust is added when you own real property, want to keep your estate out of probate, or need to control how and when someone inherits.

The core documents and what each one does.

• Will (NRS 133.040). Directs who inherits what is left in your own name, names your personal representative, and nominates a guardian for minor children.
• Revocable living trust (NRS Chapter 163). Holds title during your life, avoids probate for whatever it owns, and controls timing and conditions of inheritance.
• Durable financial power of attorney. Lets someone you choose handle money, property, and taxes if you cannot. In Nevada a power of attorney is durable by default, so it survives your incapacity unless the document says otherwise (NRS 162A.210).
• Power of attorney for health care (NRS 162A.790). Names the person who makes medical decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself.
• Advance directive, or living will (NRS 449A.433). States your own wishes about life-sustaining treatment so your agent and your family are not guessing.
• HIPAA authorization. Lets the people you name actually obtain your medical information.
• Guardian nomination (NRS 159A.062). Made in your will; tells the court who you want raising your minor children.
• Beneficiary designations. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities pass by contract, not by your will. These forms are part of the plan, not an afterthought.

What you need depends on where you are in life. A young adult, including a Nevada college student who just turned 18, most needs the two powers of attorney and a HIPAA authorization, because parents lose automatic access at 18. A single Henderson homeowner needs a will and powers of attorney, plus either a trust or, at minimum, a recorded deed upon death so the house does not go through probate. Parents of minor children need a guardian nomination and a trust to hold an inheritance until the children are old enough to manage it. Married couples need to coordinate community property, survivorship titling, and beneficiary forms so the plan works at both the first and second death. Retirees should focus on beneficiary designations, incapacity documents, and preserving the income tax basis step-up. Business owners need succession terms that match their operating agreement.

No single package is right for everyone. The point of a consultation is to figure out which of these you actually need.

Signing your trust does not move anything into it. To keep your Henderson or Las Vegas home out of probate, a new deed transferring it to your trust must be prepared, signed, notarized, and recorded with the Clark County Recorder. Anything you never retitle stays in your own name, and stays a probate asset. That retitling work is called funding.

Real property. We prepare a deed conveying the property from you individually to you as trustee, along with the Declaration of Value the recorder requires. A transfer to or from a trust without consideration is exempt from Nevada's real property transfer tax if a certificate of trust is presented at the time of transfer (NRS 375.090(7)). Property in another state needs a deed recorded in that state, under that state's rules.

Your mortgage, insurance, and homestead. Under the federal Garn-St Germain Act, a lender holding a loan secured by residential property of fewer than five dwelling units generally may not enforce a due-on-sale clause when the borrower transfers the home into a living trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary, so long as the transfer does not change who has the right to occupy the property (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)(8)). Tell your homeowner's insurer and update the named insured. Nevada's homestead exemption protects up to $605,000 of equity from most forced sales (NRS 115.010(2)), but only if a declaration of homestead is recorded; it is not automatic. Conveying the property into your trust does not extinguish an existing homestead, and a trustee may declare homestead for a settlor or beneficiary who lives there (NRS 115.020(5)).

Everything else. Bank and brokerage accounts are retitled into the trust's name. LLC and partnership interests are assigned, with the operating agreement checked for consent requirements. Life insurance and annuities are handled by beneficiary designation. Retirement accounts are not retitled into a trust, because doing so triggers a taxable distribution. You coordinate them through beneficiary designations instead.

How this compares to a Nevada deed upon death. A deed upon death (NRS 111.655 to 111.699) is inexpensive and leaves you in full control: during your lifetime it creates no interest in the beneficiary and does not restrict your right to sell, refinance, or encumber the property (NRS 111.685), and you can revoke it while you are alive using the statutory form, so long as you still have the capacity required to make a will (NRS 111.679, 111.697). It must be recorded before your death in the county where the property sits (NRS 111.681), and if you transfer the property during your lifetime the deed is void (NRS 111.677). Its limits matter, though. The beneficiary takes the property subject to any liens existing at your death (NRS 111.691). The property can still be reached to satisfy allowed estate claims, and it remains exposed to recovery of public assistance benefits (NRS 111.689, 111.693). It does nothing if you become incapacitated. And it has no built-in backup plan if the beneficiary dies before you, is a minor, is in a divorce, or has creditors.

How it compares to adding someone to title. Adding an adult child as a joint tenant (NRS 111.065) avoids probate on that asset, but it is a present gift, exposes your home to that child's creditors and divorce, and gives up your sole control. Between spouses, community property with right of survivorship (NRS 111.064) avoids probate at the first death and preserves the full basis adjustment Nevada community property gets under federal law, but it does nothing at the second death.

Whatever structure you choose, ask who is responsible for the funding work. In our flat fee, we are.

Nevada's intestacy statutes decide for you. Your half of the community property passes to your surviving spouse, but your separate property is divided under NRS Chapter 134, and that division surprises people. If you leave a spouse and two or more children, your spouse receives only one-third of your separate property.

Community property. Nevada is a community property state. On the death of either spouse, the surviving spouse already owns an undivided one-half of the community property as their own separate property. The decedent's remaining half passes by will, and if there is no will, it goes to the surviving spouse (NRS 123.250). So for a long-married Henderson couple whose assets are all community property, dying without a will may still leave everything to the survivor. The cost is having to prove it through the probate court, and having no plan at all for the second death.

Separate property, meaning what you owned before marriage or received during marriage by gift or inheritance, follows NRS Chapter 134:

• Spouse and one child: one-half to the spouse, one-half to the child (NRS 134.040).
• Spouse and two or more children: one-third to the spouse, the remainder in equal shares to the children (NRS 134.040).
• Spouse, no children, surviving parents: one-half to the spouse, one-fourth to each parent (NRS 134.050).
• Spouse, no children or parents, but siblings: one-half to the spouse, one-half among the siblings (NRS 134.050).
• Spouse and none of the above: everything to the spouse (NRS 134.050).
• No spouse, but children: equally among the children (NRS 134.090).
• No spouse and no kindred at all: the estate escheats to the State for educational purposes (NRS 134.120). This is rare.

The assumptions that cause the most damage. An unmarried partner inherits nothing, no matter how long you lived together, because Nevada does not recognize common-law marriage. Stepchildren you never legally adopted are not your children for this purpose. And none of these rules touch assets with a valid beneficiary designation or survivorship title: a 401(k), life insurance policy, POD account, or jointly held home passes outside intestacy entirely, which means an outdated beneficiary form can override everything you assumed.

Two more consequences. The court, not you, selects the personal representative, and may require a bond. And if you have minor children, the court decides guardianship without the benefit of your nomination.

Whoever you named in advance. If you named no one, the decision falls to whoever a Nevada court appoints as your guardian. Four documents cover incapacity here: a durable financial power of attorney, a power of attorney for health care, an advance directive, and, if you have a trust, its successor trustee provisions. Each covers a different piece.

Durable financial power of attorney. This is the document that lets your agent pay your bills, manage accounts, deal with the IRS, and handle real estate. In Nevada it is durable by default, meaning it remains effective through your incapacity unless the document expressly says it terminates (NRS 162A.210). It takes effect when signed unless you specify a future date or event, such as your incapacity (NRS 162A.260). A "springing" power sounds safer, but it creates delay, because someone must first establish that you are incapacitated. Notarizing creates a presumption that your signature is genuine (NRS 162A.220), and banks and title companies expect it.

Power of attorney for health care. Must be signed by you, and your signature must be either acknowledged before a notary public or witnessed by two adult witnesses (NRS 162A.790). You generally cannot name your health care provider, their employee, or the operator or an employee of a health care facility as your agent, unless that person is your spouse, legal guardian, or next of kin (NRS 162A.840).

Advance directive, or living will. A Nevada declaration governing the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment must be signed by you and attested by two witnesses (NRS 449A.433). It tells your agent and your physicians what you want, rather than leaving it to a family argument at the worst possible moment. Nevada residents can register advance directives with the Secretary of State's Nevada Lockbox so hospitals can locate them.

Successor trustee. Your successor trustee manages only what the trust owns. Your agent under the financial power of attorney handles everything else: retirement accounts, Social Security, tax filings, an account you forgot to retitle. That is why a trust does not replace a power of attorney.

Choosing people. Name a first choice and at least two alternates. The best money manager in your family is not always the right person to sit in a hospital and make a hard medical call, and you are allowed to name different people for each role. Tell them before you name them.

What happens if you wait too long. Once capacity is gone, you can no longer sign. Your family's only remaining option is a guardianship petition under NRS Chapter 159 in the Eighth Judicial District Court: a public court file, a formal appointment process, potential bonding, inventories, annual accountings, and continuing court oversight, often for the rest of your life. Signing these documents while you still can is the most reliable way to keep that decision inside your family instead of in front of a judge.

These are two separate decisions. Who raises your children is a guardian nomination, and it belongs in your will (NRS 159A.062). Who manages their money is a trustee. Naming the same person for both by default is common, and it is often the wrong answer.

The guardian nomination. A Nevada parent may nominate a guardian by will. The nominee still has to petition the court and be appointed, because the nomination does not operate automatically. The court must consider your nomination among the factors bearing on the child's best interests (NRS 159A.061), so it carries real weight, but it is not binding, and a surviving fit legal parent generally has priority regardless. Name at least one alternate, and think about geography, age, health, values, and whether that household can realistically absorb more children. A short, non-binding letter of intent explaining your reasoning is worth writing; judges and family members read them.

For shorter absences such as travel, deployment, or medical treatment, Nevada also allows a parent to create a short-term guardianship by written instrument (NRS 159A.205).

The money side. Without a trust, a minor's inheritance goes into a court-supervised guardianship of the estate, with accountings. The guardianship ends when the child turns 18, or slightly later in the limited circumstances the statute allows (NRS 159A.191), and the guardian must then deliver the property to them outright (NRS 159A.197). Very few 18-year-olds should receive a life insurance payout in one check. A trust lets you decide instead: distributions for health, education, maintenance, and support while they are young, then staged distributions at ages you choose, or a lifetime trust that also shields the inheritance from a future divorce, lawsuit, or creditor.

Coordinate the beneficiary forms. Naming a minor child directly on a life insurance policy or a 401(k) recreates the exact problem the trust was meant to solve. The trust, or a specific subtrust for the children, should generally be named instead.

Retirement accounts have their own rule. Under the SECURE Act, a minor child of the account owner is an eligible designated beneficiary and can take distributions over life expectancy until age 21, after which the 10-year rule applies. Grandchildren and other minors do not get that treatment. Whether a trust is drafted as a conduit or an accumulation trust changes the tax result significantly, so the trust language and the beneficiary form have to be designed together.

For most young Henderson families, term life insurance is what actually funds this plan. The trust is what keeps it from being handed to a teenager.

Nevada is a community property state, so most of what either spouse earns during the marriage belongs to both of you equally (NRS 123.220). For a blended family, planning means deciding on purpose how much your surviving spouse controls and how much is locked in for your own children, because leaving it to goodwill usually does not hold.

Start with characterization. Separate property is what you owned before the marriage or received during it by gift or inheritance. It can lose that character when it is commingled with community funds. Sorting this out while both spouses are alive is far easier, and far cheaper, than litigating it afterward.

Joint trust or separate trusts. A single joint trust is simpler and works well for long marriages where nearly everything is community property and both spouses want the same beneficiaries. Separate trusts, or a joint trust divided into separate shares at the first death, usually fit better where there is meaningful separate property, a business, or children from a prior relationship.

The central blended-family risk. If you leave everything outright to your surviving spouse, that spouse can remarry, retitle, rewrite their own plan, and direct your assets anywhere. Nothing legally obligates them to honor your intentions. The usual alternatives are a marital trust that supports your spouse for life with the remainder passing to your children, or a division at the first death between a share for your spouse and a share set aside for your children.

Beneficiary designations override your trust. The most common failure we see is an old 401(k) or life insurance policy still naming a former spouse. Nevada law revokes most revocable transfers to a former spouse on divorce: NRS 111.781 for non-probate transfers such as trusts and beneficiary designations, and NRS 133.115 for wills. But federal law preempts that rule for ERISA-governed retirement plans, so the plan administrator pays whoever is on the form. Nevada may give the rightful beneficiary a claim to recover it afterward (NRS 111.781(9)), but that is a lawsuit, not a plan. Update the form. One related distinction worth knowing: employer plans governed by ERISA, such as a 401(k), generally require your spouse's written, witnessed consent before you can name anyone else as primary beneficiary. IRAs are not covered by that federal rule, so whatever protection a Nevada spouse has in an IRA comes from community property law instead, which is exactly the kind of gap a coordinated plan is supposed to close.

Write down why. Where family members have competing expectations, the reasoning behind an unequal or unexpected distribution belongs in the file. Nevada courts must enforce a no-contest clause to the greatest extent possible according to its terms, without regard to whether the person challenging had probable cause or acted in good faith (NRS 137.005 for wills, NRS 163.00195 for trusts). Both statutes carry exceptions, though, and the most important one cuts the other way: a clause cannot be enforced against someone who brings an action to invalidate the will or trust in good faith and based on probable cause. So a no-contest clause discourages opportunistic challenges; it does not insulate a plan that was poorly drafted or signed under questionable circumstances. That is an argument for careful drafting, not for a template.

Premarital and postmarital agreements can be coordinated with all of this, and often should be.

Almost certainly still valid. Nevada recognizes a will executed outside the state if it complied with the law where it was signed or where you were domiciled (NRS 133.080). Valid is not the same as working. What breaks in a move is titling, powers of attorney, and tax assumptions that no longer apply here.

What Nevada recognizes. Out-of-state wills are honored under NRS 133.080. A power of attorney for health care executed elsewhere is valid in Nevada if it complied with that state's law (NRS 162A.790(4)), and out-of-state advance directives are recognized under NRS 449A.481. In practice, though, Nevada banks, hospitals, and title companies move much faster on Nevada forms, and that speed matters on the day someone actually needs to use the document.

What actually needs attention after the move. Your new Nevada home has to be deeded into your trust and recorded with the Clark County Recorder. A trust that held your California house owns nothing if you sold it and bought here. Consider recording a Nevada declaration of homestead (NRS 115.010, 115.020). Check whether your trust names an out-of-state trustee or specifies another state's law, which can cost you Nevada's advantages. And confirm your powers of attorney name people who can actually get here.

The tax review that is easy to miss. Nevada has no state income tax and no state estate or inheritance tax. Plans drafted in high-tax states often contain bypass or credit-shelter trusts sized to exemption amounts from decades ago. With the federal basic exclusion at $15,000,000 per person for deaths in 2026, that old structure can now push assets out of the surviving spouse's estate unnecessarily and give up a valuable second basis step-up. If your trust has mandatory funding language, it is worth having someone read it.

Property characterization. California community property generally keeps its character when you move to Nevada, which is helpful. Property brought from a common-law state does not automatically become community property, so how you take title here matters (NRS 111.064, NRS 111.065).

Other triggers for a review. Marriage, divorce, or remarriage; the birth or adoption of a child; the death or decline of anyone you named as trustee, agent, or guardian; buying or selling real estate; starting, buying, or selling a business; a beneficiary who develops a disability, an addiction, a lawsuit, or a bankruptcy; a significant change in the size of your estate; and changes in federal tax law. Absent any of those, a review every three to five years is reasonable.

Why some people move their trust here. Nevada permits trusts to last up to 365 years (NRS 111.1031) and is one of a minority of states that allow a self-settled spendthrift trust, with a two-year limitations period for creditor challenges to a transfer (NRS 166.170). Those are real reasons to consider Nevada situs, quite apart from where you live.

An online will can be perfectly valid in Nevada if it is executed correctly: in writing, signed by you, and attested by two competent witnesses (NRS 133.040). Validity is rarely where these plans fail. What we get called to fix are documents that were never properly signed, trusts that were never funded, and beneficiary forms that contradict the plan entirely.

Nevada's execution rules, plainly. A standard will must be in writing, signed by you (or by someone else at your express direction), and attested by at least two competent witnesses who sign in your presence (NRS 133.040). A handwritten, or holographic, will is valid without witnesses if the signature, date, and material provisions are in your own handwriting (NRS 133.090). Those hold up legally, but they are a frequent source of contests. Nevada was the first state in the country to authorize electronic wills, in 2001, and substantially modernized the statute in 2017; NRS 133.085 requires specific authentication, such as an electronic notary's seal or the electronic signatures of two witnesses, each applied in your presence. Ordinary consumer e-signature services generally do not satisfy it.

The step most DIY packets skip. Your witnesses can sign a self-proving affidavit or a declaration under penalty of perjury (NRS 133.050), which allows the will to be admitted later on that sworn statement rather than requiring the witnesses to be located and brought to court years afterward (NRS 136.160). It costs nothing at signing and saves real money later.

Trusts. Nevada does not require a trust to be witnessed or notarized to be valid; a trust concerning real property need only be evidenced by a signed written instrument (NRS 163.008). But notarization is a practical necessity anyway, because the deed to your home must be acknowledged to be recorded, and a certification of trust must be a signed and acknowledged affidavit (NRS 164.400).

Where individual advice earns its keep. Any Nevada real property, because the deed has to be drafted and recorded correctly or the trust accomplishes nothing. Blended families. A beneficiary receiving needs-based public benefits. Retirement accounts under the 10-year rule. Community versus separate property characterization. Incapacity provisions. Asset protection. And funding, which is the single most common reason a store-bought trust fails.

Where a DIY document may be reasonable. A young adult with no real property and modest assets that already pass by beneficiary designation, no children from a prior relationship, and no one to protect from themselves may be fine for now with properly executed powers of attorney and a simple will.

We review documents people prepared themselves fairly often, and sometimes the honest answer is that yours is fine and only needs to be funded. We will tell you that.

Nevada has no inheritance tax and currently imposes no state estate tax. The federal estate tax reaches only estates above $15,000,000 per person for deaths in 2026. The tax that actually hits most Nevada families is income tax on inherited retirement accounts, a completely different tax that estate planning does not eliminate.

These are four separate taxes, and confusing them is the most common mistake we hear.

1. Nevada inheritance tax: none. The Nevada Constitution provides that no inheritance tax shall ever be levied (Nev. Const. art. 10, § 1(7)).

2. Nevada estate tax: none at present. NRS Chapter 375A imposes a tax measured by the federal credit for state death taxes, and that federal credit has been zero since 2005. The Nevada Department of Taxation confirms that no Nevada estate tax filing is required for deaths on or after January 1, 2005. Note that if you own real property in another state, that state's rules apply to it, and several states do impose estate or inheritance taxes.

3. Federal estate and gift tax. For decedents dying in 2026, the basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32), indexed for inflation in later years. That is effectively $30,000,000 for a married couple, but only if portability is elected. Portability is not automatic: the surviving spouse receives the deceased spouse's unused exclusion only if a federal estate tax return (Form 706) is filed for the first spouse's death, even when no tax is owed. An estate not otherwise required to file has up to five years from the date of death to make a portability-only election under Rev. Proc. 2022-32. The annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient for 2026.

4. Income tax on inherited retirement accounts. A traditional IRA or 401(k) is taxed as ordinary income to whoever withdraws it. Under the SECURE Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty the account by the end of the tenth calendar year after the owner's death. Eligible designated beneficiaries may still stretch distributions over life expectancy: a surviving spouse, a minor child of the owner (until 21), a disabled or chronically ill beneficiary, and anyone not more than ten years younger than the owner. Final regulations issued in 2024 also require annual minimum distributions during that ten-year window where the owner died on or after their required beginning date; the IRS waived penalties for missed distributions through 2024 and began enforcing the requirement in 2025. Roth accounts escape the income tax but remain subject to the ten-year deadline.

And capital gains. Inherited assets generally receive a new income tax basis equal to date-of-death value under IRC § 1014, so a Henderson home bought in 1998 can often be sold by the heirs shortly after death with little or no taxable gain. Nevada's community property status is a real advantage here: under IRC § 1014(b)(6), both halves of community property receive a new basis at the first spouse's death, not just the decedent's half. Property given away during your lifetime does not get that treatment, because the recipient takes your basis. That is why giving appreciated real estate to your children during life is frequently worse than leaving it to them at death.

The takeaway. Avoiding probate and reducing taxes are separate analyses with separate tools. A revocable living trust does not reduce your income tax, does not reduce federal estate tax, and does not protect assets from your own creditors during your lifetime. It does other valuable things, but if someone is selling it to you as a tax shelter, ask more questions.

Figures stated above are current as of September 2026 and change with federal law and inflation adjustments. Confirm current amounts before relying on them.