Estate Planning News Roundup: June 2026 — Five Updates Law Firms Need This Week

If your team is still heads-down processing the post-OBBBA document review queue, this week's estate planning news June 2026 developments will add to your reading pile — and one item has a hard deadline nine days from today.

Here is what has moved in the past several weeks and why each development matters to your practice.

Washington's Estate Tax Rate Cut Takes Effect in Nine Days

On July 1, 2026 — nine days from today — Washington's estate tax top rate drops from 35 percent to 20 percent. The 35 percent rate was a temporary increase that applied only through June 30, 2026. Beginning July 1, Washington's top marginal estate tax rate reverts to 20 percent, which remains the highest in the country.

What does not change: Washington's exemption. The exemption is frozen at $3,000,000 and is not indexed for inflation going forward. For deaths occurring on or after July 1, the exemption resets to exactly $3,000,000 (it had been $3,076,000 in the first half of 2026 due to a prior inflation adjustment). Clients with Washington property or Washington domicile still face a significant state estate tax on estates above that threshold — the rate reduction affects the upper brackets, not the exposure itself.

The funding implication is immediate. Washington-focused plans that have been amended in recent months — updated bypass trust provisions, revised trustee succession, new disclaimer strategies, SLATs or IDGTs established to shift assets out of the taxable estate — only provide protection if the underlying assets are properly titled. If your team has a queue of Washington client amendments from Q1 or Q2 that haven't been fully funded, the July 1 date is a natural forcing function to move those files.

New York's $7.35 Million Exemption Comes With a Cliff

Effective January 1, 2026, New York's estate tax exclusion is $7,350,000. That is an increase from prior years and creates meaningful planning capacity — until you look at what happens to estates just above the threshold.

New York's estate tax includes what practitioners commonly call the cliff. If a taxable estate exceeds 105 percent of the exclusion amount — approximately $7,717,500 at the current $7,350,000 exclusion — no exclusion applies at all. The tax is assessed against the full estate value from dollar one, not merely the amount above the threshold. An estate of $7.8 million loses the entire $7.35 million exclusion and pays New York estate tax on the full $7.8 million. An estate of $7.7 million pays no New York estate tax. That gap of a few hundred thousand dollars in estate size produces a wildly disproportionate tax outcome.

New York also does not allow portability between spouses. Every dollar of the exclusion that is not captured at the first death is gone. A credit shelter trust that shelters assets up to the exclusion amount is only effective if the trust was funded at the first death — which means the underlying assets must have been properly titled before that moment, not after.

Clients with New York property or New York domicile and estates in the $6 million to $9 million range warrant active review of their current documents, their asset titling, and their funding status. The planning strategies are well established. The execution is where estates fall into the cliff.

The IRS Now Accepts Electronic Filing for Gift Tax Returns

The IRS has expanded its Modernized e-File (MeF) platform to accept federal gift tax returns — Form 709 — filed electronically through authorized e-file providers. Form 709 was previously a paper-only return. The electronic option is now available for the 2025 returns due in April 2026 and going forward.

The practical upside for estate planning firms is straightforward: faster confirmation of receipt, cleaner records, and reduced risk of paper returns going astray at an IRS processing center. For clients who made large gifts in 2025 to SLATs, dynasty trusts, or other structures that triggered gift tax return filing obligations, e-filing offers a cleaner path.

A few caveats worth knowing before you direct your clients' CPAs or tax counsel to e-file: not all authorized e-file providers have activated the Form 709 module within their software. If gift tax return preparation is handled by outside counsel or an accounting firm, confirm that their system supports e-filing Form 709 specifically before assuming the option is available. The filing deadline itself is unchanged — April 15 of the year following the gift, with a six-month extension available via Form 4868.

Oregon's Estate Tax Repeal Is Heading Toward the November Ballot

Oregon currently imposes an estate tax on estates exceeding $1,000,000, at rates up to 16 percent on larger estates. That $1 million threshold has been frozen since 2011 — a period during which Oregon real estate values, in particular, have increased substantially. An initiative petition to repeal Oregon's estate tax entirely is on track to qualify for the November 2026 ballot.

The outcome is genuinely uncertain. Oregon's electorate has a history of supporting progressive tax structures, and the repeal initiative will face organized opposition. At the same time, the $1 million threshold now captures a meaningful number of estates that do not represent concentrated generational wealth — it captures ordinary homeowners in markets where median home values have climbed well above $500,000.

The right posture for practitioners advising clients with Oregon property or Oregon domicile: continue current Oregon estate tax planning. Do not restructure plans around an outcome that hasn't happened. If the initiative reaches the ballot and passes in November, repeal would almost certainly carry a prospective effective date that gives firms and clients time to adapt. Plans structured today to reduce Oregon estate tax exposure remain appropriate for clients who need them now.

The Post-OBBBA Document Review Wave Is Producing a Trust Funding Backlog

The common thread running through the estate planning news June 2026 cycle is not hard to identify. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the $15 million federal exemption permanent, but it also triggered a massive wave of document reviews — formula clause audits, bypass trust amendments, new irrevocable structures designed around the updated exemption landscape, SLAT and IDGT formations, and plan revisions for clients who had been in a holding pattern waiting for the TCJA sunset. For a detailed walkthrough of how to fund a revocable trust — including the institution-specific steps, beneficiary designation review, and the follow-up cadence that actually gets files closed — that guide covers the full process.

That wave of document review is largely complete. The wave it has produced — trust funding execution — is just getting started.

Amended revocable trusts need retitled bank and brokerage accounts. Newly established irrevocable trusts need funded assets. Property in Washington, New York, and Oregon needs deed work to transfer title into the correct entity or trust. Beneficiary designations need to be updated to match the new plan structure. None of this is complex, but all of it is time-intensive, and it has to be done correctly or the plan doesn't work.

The question for estate planning firms right now is not whether the funding work exists. It clearly does. The question is whether your team has the infrastructure to execute it without absorbing the hours invisibly in paralegal and staff time. Our complete trust funding guide covers every asset class — real estate, financial accounts, business interests, mineral rights — with enough operational detail to see exactly what's involved.

Key Takeaways

• Washington's estate tax top rate drops from 35% to 20% effective July 1, 2026 — nine days from today. The exemption resets to $3,000,000 and is not indexed. Rate-exposed clients with unfunded Washington plan amendments should be prioritized now.
• New York's 2026 estate tax exclusion is $7,350,000, but the cliff effect means estates exceeding approximately $7,717,500 pay tax on the full estate value with no exclusion. New York does not allow portability.
• The IRS now accepts Form 709 (gift tax returns) electronically through its MeF platform via authorized e-file providers. The deadline and substance of the return are unchanged.
• Oregon's ballot initiative to repeal its $1 million estate tax threshold is on track for a November 2026 vote. Outcome is uncertain — do not abandon Oregon-specific planning strategies while it remains unresolved.
• Across Washington deadlines, New York cliff planning, and post-OBBBA amendment queues, the operational story of this season is trust funding execution. Plans revised but not funded provide no protection.