America’s Richest Use GRATs to Avoid Estate Tax: ProPublica

More than 50% of the very wealthiest people in the U.S. have used Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts and other trusts to avoid estate tax, according to an analysis by ProPublica.

Those who have tapped the trusts include Laurene Powell Jobs, Stephen Schwarzman, Charles Koch and Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

The report is part of a series by ProPublica that has outlined tax strategies available to the top 0.1% based on confidential tax information they received. ProPublica has said the information was sent unsolicited to the news ...