Succession & Estate Planning 2026

As demonstrated by the diverse jurisdictional contributions to this year’s inaugural Chambers guide to Succession & Estate Planning, the international landscape for estate and succession planning is influenced by the timeless need to address the age-old certainties of death, taxes and the desire to protect loved ones and pass on lasting legacies in the face of the changing, and at times disruptive, set of current influences on the world of wealth creation and transition.

The laws of estate and succession planning are traditionally jurisdictionally bound, conservative and slow to change, sitting as they do at the intersection of family relationships, property rights and taxation of inheritance. Yet the early decades of the 21st century are producing pressures that are accelerating change in this field. Demographic shifts, increased global mobility and geopolitical uncertainty, regulatory and tax competition among jurisdictions, evolving family structures and the rise of digital wealth are reshaping the scale and nature of wealth transition and the legal environment in which to plan its succession. This in turn is greatly increasing the demands on advisors and wealth owners to plan effectively for the transfer of assets across generations in this changing environment.

One of the most significant forces affecting succession planning today is demographic: the so-called great wealth transfer. In the United States alone, tens of trillions of dollars are expected to pass from the baby boom generation to their children and grandchildren over the coming two to three decades. Similar transfers are underway in Europe, parts of Asia and Latin America, where post-war generations accumulated large concentrations of wealth through real estate, financial markets and closely held businesses. Indeed, some emerging and emerged markets are in the early stages of the most significant private wealth transitions from one generation to the next in at least a century. This generational shift is creating both opportunities and challenges for families – and for the professionals who advise them. For wealth holders, the question is not merely how assets will pass, but how they will be preserved, governed and deployed by younger generations whose lifestyles and geographic mobility often differ dramatically from those of their parents.

At the same time, this enormous transition of private wealth is intersecting with growing wealth inequality and the desire of governments, and their people, to tax great wealth while at the same time retaining (and attracting) such wealth within their borders. In this environment, jurisdictions around the world – and even individual states within federal systems such as the United States – are increasingly competing to attract private wealth. This competition has produced a wave of innovation in trust law, tax regimes and asset-protection structures. States such as South Dakota, Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming in the USA have enacted statutes permitting long-duration or “dynasty” trusts, flexible directed-trust structures and strong protections against creditor claims. Internationally, offshore financial centres and traditional trust jurisdictions have similarly modernised their laws to attract global capital by offering flexible trust structures, confidentiality protections and tax neutrality.

Not to be entirely outdone, some high-tax nations, both large and small, are competing to attract people to move to their jurisdiction through special flat-tax or reduced-tax regimes, while others are creating higher walls to escape their income or inheritance taxation for years after a resident leaves their jurisdiction. Notable recent examples of this flurry of legal changes include the United Kingdom, which introduced major changes to its tax regime in 2025 to reduce the length and extent of its longstanding tax-preferential regime for non-domiciled residents, while combining it with longer “tails” for the inheritance taxation of deemed domiciliaries who leave. Representing something of a counter-trend, in the USA, the exemption from federal estate tax has continued to increase since the tax reform in 2017, reaching an all-time high in excess of USD15 million per person (which will continue to grow, indexed for inflation, under current law), and the current Administration proposes to enact legislation to create a “gold card” to attract very wealthy non-US persons to reside in the USA without subjection to US income tax on their offshore wealth – at least for some period of time.

This competition for mobile wealth, amidst political reaction against tax minimisation regimes and structuring, intersects with another defining trend of contemporary life: the globalisation of personal and family existence. Increasing numbers of affluent individuals live, work, invest and maintain family connections across multiple jurisdictions. A family might have parents residing in the United States, adult children working in Europe or Asia, assets held in investment accounts in several countries and real estate in yet another. These realities complicate traditional notions of domicile, tax residence and governing law. Estate planners must therefore navigate not only the domestic tax and succession rules of one jurisdiction, but also international treaties, foreign forced-heirship regimes and cross-border reporting obligations.

Against this backdrop of global mobility, wealth concentration and increasing succession, a number of social and technological changes are exerting a profound influence on succession planning law and practice. Two particularly important areas are the evolving legal recognition of non-traditional family structures and the growing importance of digital assets in both financial and personal life.

Evolving Family Structures and the Law of Succession

Historically, succession law developed around a relatively narrow conception of family. Marriage was generally defined as a heterosexual union, and legal systems often assumed that children were born naturally to married parents. Property rights, inheritance rules and tax benefits were structured around this traditional model. Over the past several decades, however, social norms and legal frameworks have evolved significantly.

One of the most consequential developments has been the legal recognition of same-sex marriage and other forms of domestic partnership in a growing number of jurisdictions. In the United States, nationwide recognition of same-sex marriage dramatically altered the legal landscape for estate planning. Married couples – regardless of gender – can now benefit from marital inheritance rights, spousal elective share protections and the ability to transfer assets between spouses without incurring federal estate or gift tax through the marital deduction. However, some state laws remain opposed or have not adjusted fully to federal recognition. Similar reforms have occurred in many countries around the world, although the pace and scope of recognition vary widely.

For estate planners, these changes require significant adjustments. Same-sex couples who previously relied on complex contractual arrangements to approximate spousal rights can now benefit from traditional marital planning tools. At the same time, planners must remain attentive to the fact that cross-border couples and couples with cross-state property interests may encounter differing legal recognition depending on where they reside or hold assets. A marriage recognised in one place may not be fully acknowledged in another, creating potential uncertainty in inheritance rights or taxation.

Beyond marriage equality, the broader recognition of diverse family structures has also begun to reshape succession law. Domestic partnerships, cohabitation arrangements and blended families with children from multiple relationships are increasingly common. These realities complicate the distribution of property at death and often require more deliberate planning to avoid disputes among surviving partners, biological children, stepchildren and other potential heirs.

Scientific advances in reproductive technology are adding further complexity. Techniques such as in vitro fertilisation, surrogacy and the freezing of embryos or genetic material have expanded the possibilities of parenthood. Children may now be conceived years after the death of a biological parent, or born through surrogacy arrangements involving multiple parties across different jurisdictions. These developments raise fundamental legal questions about parentage, inheritance rights and the timing of succession. For example, some legal systems must now address whether a child conceived posthumously through stored genetic material is entitled to inherit from the deceased parent’s estate. The answer often depends on statutory provisions, the explicit intent expressed in estate planning documents and the timing of conception relative to other events, including probate proceedings. Similarly, cross-border surrogacy arrangements may involve jurisdictions with differing views on parental recognition, creating uncertainty about the legal status of children for inheritance purposes.

As a result, estate planners increasingly advise clients to address these possibilities explicitly in their wills and trusts. Documents may specify whether posthumously conceived children should be included as beneficiaries, how parentage is to be determined in cases involving assisted reproduction and how assets should be managed for children born through surrogacy arrangements. Over time, courts and legislatures are gradually adapting succession law to accommodate these evolving family realities, but the pace of change remains uneven across jurisdictions.

Digital Assets and the Transformation of Wealth

Another major force reshaping estate planning is the rapid expansion of digital assets and digital life. A generation ago, most wealth existed in physical or easily identifiable forms: real estate, bank accounts, securities certificates and tangible personal property. Today, significant portions of both financial and personal value exist entirely in digital form.

At the most basic level, individuals now maintain extensive digital footprints. Email accounts, social media profiles, online photo libraries, cloud storage and subscription services may contain valuable personal records and intellectual property. Access to these accounts is typically governed by complex terms-of-service agreements and privacy laws that were not originally designed with post-mortem access in mind. Families frequently discover after a death that they cannot easily retrieve digital photographs, correspondence or other sentimental materials without proper authorisation. To address these challenges, a number of jurisdictions have enacted legislation permitting the designation of “digital executors” or otherwise clarifying fiduciary access to digital accounts. These laws attempt to balance the privacy interests of the deceased with the practical needs of estate administration. Estate planners increasingly recommend that clients maintain secure inventories of digital accounts, passwords and access instructions, often stored through specialised digital vault services or encrypted records accessible to trusted fiduciaries.

Beyond personal digital accounts, the rise of purely digital financial assets presents even greater challenges. Cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based assets represent a rapidly expanding category of wealth that may exist entirely outside traditional financial institutions. Unlike conventional bank accounts, these assets are often controlled solely through cryptographic private keys. If those keys are lost or inaccessible at the owner’s death, the assets themselves may effectively disappear. High-profile cases of lost cryptocurrency holdings have highlighted the importance of careful planning. Estate planners must now ask clients not only about conventional assets, but also about digital wallets, decentralised finance accounts and other blockchain-based holdings. Planning strategies may include multi-signature wallets, hardware storage devices with controlled access procedures and carefully documented instructions for fiduciaries.

Even traditional financial assets are becoming increasingly digital. Investment accounts, online banking platforms and payment services are often accessed solely through digital interfaces. The practical administration of an estate therefore requires that executors or trustees understand how to locate, verify and manage these accounts while complying with cybersecurity and privacy regulations.

The broader implications of digitalisation extend beyond crypto- and digitally stored financial asset transfer. Digital identities, online intellectual property and virtual goods – ranging from monetised social media channels to digital art and non-fungible tokens – may themselves constitute valuable components of an individual’s estate. Determining how such assets should be valued, transferred or preserved presents novel legal and practical questions that the estate planning profession is only beginning to address.

Adapting the Practice of Estate Planning

Taken together, these developments illustrate how succession planning is being reshaped by forces that extend far beyond established legal rules and doctrines. The demographics of our aging society, global mobility amidst roiling tax-regime change, evolving social norms and technological transformation are interacting in ways that challenge fundamental assumptions about family, property and inheritance, as well as traditional, nationally bound legal advice needs.

For legal practitioners, this environment demands a broader and more interdisciplinary approach. Advisors must be conversant not only with tax law and trust structures, but also with international conflict-of-laws principles, reproductive technology issues and digital privacy regimes. They must ask clients new types of questions: Where are your digital assets stored? Who can access your online accounts? How should your estate plan address children born through assisted reproductive technologies? Which jurisdiction’s law will govern the taxation of your trust if your family relocates?

As the great wealth transfer accelerates, and as the social and political changes currently in view continue to evolve, succession planning will likely remain an area of dynamic legal development in the years ahead. At the same time, the underlying objectives of succession planning remain constant. Families continue to seek clarity, continuity, efficiency and protection from risk in the transfer of wealth and responsibility from one generation to the next. What is changing is the context in which those objectives must be pursued.