The Hartwell Family · Post-Sale Gift Comparison · October 2026
Three million or six. What each gift leaves behind.
A short walk through what the Larkspur sale leaves, how each gift shapes your retirement, and where everything ends up.
Prepared for Robert and Margaret Hartwell by Alistair Sinclair · Balances as of September 30, 2026
One gift, two sizes, split evenly
After the sale, Robert is weighing a gift to Thomas's and Grace's trusts. Either amount fits within his gift tax exemption. The choice is about balance: what you keep to live on, and what moves to the next generation now.
What remains once the sale is taxed
The gift comes out of what's left after costs and tax. Everything else becomes your retirement base.
Invested assets to retire on, start of 2028
Invested assets to retire on, start of 2028
Margaret to 95, in 2063.
Where it all ends up
More for the children now, less cushion for the two of you
$3M gift
$6M gift
- Confirm the 2024 GST allocations on both trusts
- CPA to confirm sale tax, including state treatment
- Finalize and sign the trust amendment for Margaret
- Update beneficiary designations to match
How these figures were built
- Sale: $10.5M price, $210,000 of seller costs and a $1.05M estimated basis, from the letter of intent. Federal tax at 23.8% (20% capital gains plus the 3.8% investment income tax). If Robert's role at Larkspur exempts the gain from the 3.8% tax, about $0.35M more stays with him. State tax is assumed at zero under an in-state exclusion for long-held company stock, pending the CPA.
- Invested assets at the start of 2028: $7.25M of Robert's and joint cash, portfolios and retirement accounts, plus net sale proceeds, less the gift. Pre-closing income, 2027 salary savings and growth before 2028 are left out, which is conservative.
- Spending is set with the slider; today's plan is $320,000 a year for 2028 through 2032, then $280,000. The later phase stays at seven-eighths of the first. Spending continues at the same level after Robert's death, and withdrawals are grossed up for a 15% blended income tax.
- Income: the Elm Street building nets about $44,000 a year after costs and debt service, with the 2031 balloon refinanced; the property tax bill is not yet on file. Social Security: Robert $4,400 a month from 70 and Margaret $2,750 a month from 67; after Robert's death Margaret keeps the larger benefit.
- Thomas's and Grace's trusts are grantor trusts, meaning Robert pays the income tax on their earnings. That is modeled as 0.6% of trust value a year while he is alive, paid from his assets.
- Margaret's separate assets ($1.8M) grow untouched and pass to Lily, as does the jointly owned home. Home and building are held at today's values ($1.4M and $2.45M), with mortgages assumed repaid.
- Estate tax: none at Robert's death because of the marital deduction. At Margaret's death, 40% above her $15M exemption plus Robert's unused exemption, assuming portability and exemptions that keep pace with inflation. GST exemption (which keeps the trusts free of tax at later generations) is assumed to cover the gifts.
- Proposed trust: Robert's remaining assets support Margaret for life, then pass to Thomas's and Grace's trusts. Current plan: everything Robert leaves passes to Margaret outright and then under her documents to Lily.
Confidential, prepared for Robert and Margaret Hartwell. Prepared October 2026. All projections are in today's dollars and are estimates, not guarantees. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
This sample interaction is a derivative of a real advisor’s working session in Helmsted, fully de-identified to protect privacy: the family, the business, the property and the firm are fictitious, and figures and identifying details have been altered. Robert and Margaret Hartwell and Caldermont Private Wealth are fictitious.
Built with Helmsted.