The article “Low-Interest Estate Planning Strategies” described several estate planning strategies that should be considered now that interest rates have reached record lows. One of the strategies that is described in the article is a “long-term GRAT,” meaning a GRAT for a term of 50 to 100 years or more.

A new calculator has been added to Webcalculators to illustrate the benefits of that kind of trust, which can be used to a exclude significant portion of the assets of the GRAT from the grantor’s gross estate. Here is a sample of the output from the calculator, and the overview of the calculators is below: