What are the tax benefits of establishing an irrevocable trust?

Generally, if you make a gift of an asset to a beneficiary during life, the asset is not included in your taxable estate at your death. An irrevocable trust provides an alternative to simply giving an asset to a beneficiary in order to reduce your taxable estate. With a trust, you can set the timing of distributions (i.e. when the beneficiary attains 30 years of age) as well as the reasons for distributions (i.e. for education only). Therefore, if your estate is close to or in excess of $2 million, including life insurance proceeds, and you are not comfortable making outright gifts to beneficiaries, you should consider setting up an irrevocable trust to take advantage of the substantial estate tax savings such a trust offers.