Understanding the Benefits and Complexities of Generation-Skipping Trusts with Amy Wirtz

Jun 19, 2025

Join Amy Wirtz, a seasoned Senior Consultant with the Family Business Consulting Group, as she dives deep into the world of generation-skipping trusts. With her extensive background in law and mediation, Amy explores the nuances of these powerful estate planning tools. She outlines their tax benefits and complexities, emphasizing long-term family dynamics. Practical tips on trustee selection and effective trust management provide invaluable guidance for families. Discover the vital role of family enterprises in economic and social stability.

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INSIGHT

Why Families Use Generation-Skipping Trusts

Generation-skipping trusts (GSTs) are irrevocable vehicles that freeze estate-tax exposure and protect assets across generations.
Families use GSTs mainly for tax protection, asset preservation, and lawsuit protection, especially in the U.S.

ANECDOTE

Spider-Web Effect In Multi-Gen Trusts

Amy describes a multi-generation farming family whose trust ownership outgrew local trustee capacity and created governance holes.
Beneficiaries became disconnected from the business and confused about control, checks, and trustee succession.

ADVICE

Ask How Trusts Change Ownership Roles

Ask advisors how an irrevocable trust will change daily company decision-making and your board/ownership roles before funding it.
Consider phased steps rather than doing all planning at once to learn along the way and reduce mistakes.

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Today, I’m excited to speak with Amy Wirtz, Senior Consultant with The Family Business Consulting Group. Amy works closely with families to identify their goals around values, ownership, and financial wealth, and helps them establish family offices, councils, and enterprise governance systems to support these goals. She served as a lawyer for 27 years, with the last 10 years practicing collaborative law.

In addition, Amy is a trained mediator and skilled facilitator in conflict resolution, communication, and listening skills. She serves on multiple family business advisory boards and frequently teaches and speaks at business forums, including YPO, YPO Family Office, Private Company Governance Conference, and The Exit Planning Institute.

In today’s conversation, we’ll zoom into generation-skipping trusts, which are both powerful and popular estate planning vehicles deployed by UHNW families and their advisors. We start with the basics, and Amy providing a definition of what generation-skipping trusts are and why are they so commonly utilized by families of wealth.

Like all estate planning, risk management, and tax optimization strategies, there are both pros and cons and complexities associated with generation-skipping trusts. Amy talks about the long-term implications for families who establish and subsequently must live within these legal structures.

Amy offers some practical tips and suggestions for families who are just starting to consider generation-skipping trusts, helping outline what they should know and beware, and how they should prepare the family for these structures.

Amy then offers some pointers and advice for families who already have established generation-skipping trusts, sharing her insights into how they can live their lives in accordance with their goals and preferences while still managing and complying with the complexities of these existing legal structures.

Please enjoy this deeply insightful conversation with one of the leading practitioners and consultants in the area of trust and estate planning for UHNW families.