How the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Can Make Family Offices Wealthier

Partner content by Dean Palmiter, Founder and CEO of Asseta.

Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA) has made one thing clear for family offices: the $30 million estate tax exemption is here to stay.

But while the tax rules are now permanent, the market turmoil driving down asset valuations is not. This creates a fascinating paradox where tax stability clashes with trade chaos.

This clash has created a finite window of opportunity.

The mix between locked-in tax rules and depressed asset prices is the kind of asymmetry sophisticated capital should move on quickly.

For principals who act now, the combination of depressed asset prices and permanent tax certainty is the most powerful wealth transfer environment in a decade.

Family offices can see this as a significant opportunity. The key is to use the powerful, permanent benefits of the new tax code as an anchor to not only survive the storm but to emerge from it significantly wealthier.

At Asseta AI, we are keenly aware of how these new changes can impact family office operations and have created a downloadable one-pager to help you keep track of these important developments.

Trump’s OBBBA introduces several powerful changes, but its most transformative feature is the newfound permanence in wealth planning.

At its core, OBBBA establishes a permanent estate and gift tax exemption of $15 million per individual, or $30 million per couple, indexed for inflation. This decisively ends the cycle of temporary patches and looming sunset dates that has defined estate planning for decades.

For principals, the frantic, year-end rush to push assets out of an estate is over. Wealth transfer can now be a deliberate, multi-year strategy, thoughtfully paced and integrated with broader family governance goals.

The exemption's size is crucial, allowing for the transfer of meaningful stakes in operating companies, private investments, and hard assets into long-term trusts without creating a liquidity crunch.

Beyond estate planning, OBBBA directly boosts the engine of many family enterprises: their operating businesses. Two key provisions work in tandem to increase free cash flow:

This combination supercharges capital allocation. It creates internal funding for expansion, acquisitions, or significant upgrades, from new industrial machinery to a necessary corporate aircraft, by allowing businesses to immediately reclaim capital through tax savings.

The result is a stronger balance sheet and the ability to pursue growth without eroding the owners' after-tax returns.

On the other hand, the Trump administration’s ongoing tariff rollout is damaging margins for some operating businesses. In many cases, the immediate effect is a lower appraised value. For estate planners, that’s actually an opportunity.

Gift and estate tax is assessed on current fair market value. A company worth $500 million in 2023 might be valued at $400 million today because of tariff headwinds.

Transferring shares at that depressed value means a greater percentage can be moved into dynasty trusts while staying within the $30 million exemption.

When trade conditions normalize or the business adapts, that future upside accrues entirely outside the taxable estate therefore permanently compounding for the next generation and potentially making your family office wealthier.

The same tariffs creating planning opportunities are also pushing inflation higher and slowing growth. A tough backdrop for traditional public market allocations.

Many family offices are responding by leaning harder into private markets, where they can directly influence outcomes. Private equity, private credit, and real assets offer a level of control that allows owners to re-engineer supply chains, relocate production, and manage input costs proactively.

The permanent tax savings from OBBBA provide the capital to execute these pivots without sacrificing other investment priorities.

OBBBA’s permanence makes the tax side predictable, but the valuation side won’t stay favorable forever. Tariff pressure will eventually ease, and asset values will recover.

The most sophisticated offices are treating this as a finite window: complete valuations now, execute transfers while the numbers are in your favor, and deploy the freed-up capital into assets where control and adaptability can generate above-market returns.

For principals who think in decades, not quarters, this is less about exploiting volatility and more about institutionalizing an advantage and locking in wealth transfers at optimal terms, reinvesting with leverage, and ensuring the family’s capital base compounds well beyond a single economic cycle.

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Dean Palmiter is the Founder and CEO of Asseta, the AI-powered platform revolutionizing how family offices manage wealth — replacing spreadsheets with automation, intelligence, and ultra-secure financial visibility.