Estate planning has two pieces of math that work on completely different scales. The federal exemption sits at $15 million per individual and $30 million per married couple in 2026. Above that, you owe 40% on the excess. Below it, you owe federal nothing.
The state-level exemption is the part most planning conversations miss. Oregon’s threshold is $1 million. Massachusetts is $2 million. Washington is $2.2 million. A $5 million household can be 100% under the federal line and still owe several hundred thousand dollars in state estate tax. We’ve had clients discover this for the first time at age 70.
Why the state piece matters more than people think
The federal estate tax affects roughly the wealthiest 0.1% of U.S. households. State estate tax affects the top 5-10% in the dozen states that levy it. If you’ve built up a successful working career, owned a home that appreciated for 25 years, and have a 401(k) plus a brokerage account, you may be in state-level estate-tax range without knowing it.
The planning options are real: change of residence in retirement, lifetime gifting, ILITs to hold life insurance outside the estate, charitable strategies, properly drafted trusts. None of them are pure DIY. But all of them start with knowing where you stand.
What this calculator does
Enter your filing status, the state where you live now, and your household’s approximate net worth (real estate, retirement accounts, taxable brokerage, life insurance death benefits, business interests — everything). The tool shows you:
- Your federal estate-tax exposure (or zero, if under the exemption)
- Your state estate-tax exposure (or zero, if your state doesn’t levy one or you’re under its threshold)
- Total projected estate tax and what your heirs would inherit after tax
- Whether you’re sitting near a state “cliff” — where a small change could move you under or over the line
A word of honesty: this is single-snapshot math against current law. Estate planning is a multi-year exercise that coordinates with gifting, charitable giving, life insurance, and trusts. That’s the kind of work we do at T&T Capital Management for households with $500K+ in investable assets — usually in collaboration with your estate attorney and CPA. We aren’t attorneys; the calculator is the conversation-starter, not the answer.
Run yours.