QSBS trust stacking can multiply the Section 1202 exclusion — $10 million per taxpayer for stock acquired on or before July 4, 2025, $15 million (or 10x basis, if greater) for stock acquired after — because each properly structured non-grantor trust is a separate taxpayer. I lead the tax analysis; estate planning attorneys at Carney Badley Spellman draft the trust instruments. One engagement, one firm, attorney-client privilege throughout.
Why the Planning Quality Matters Right Now
Treasury has said publicly that guidance limiting stacking is coming. Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Kenneth Kies told a tax conference on May 20, 2026: "Let me just warn you: we don't like stacking." A second Treasury official made similar comments on May 9, and the Wall Street Journal reported on June 29 that Treasury and the IRS are preparing guidance. Per that reporting, ordinary family estate planning appears less likely to be targeted — Treasury's stated concern is overlapping or synthetic trusts that multiply exclusions for the same economic beneficiaries.
No regulations have been proposed as of this writing, and stacking built on genuine family and estate planning purposes remains grounded in the statute — §1202(h) expressly preserves QSBS character on transfers by gift. But the environment has changed: structures that looked adequate in 2024 will be read, if guidance issues, against a standard nobody has seen yet. That argues for planning that is documented, differentiated, and defensible from the start — and for advice you can assert privilege over.
Put plainly: if guidance issues and your structure is examined, the difference between a template and privileged counsel is not the setup cost — it is what happens next.
What the Engagement Covers
Tax architecture. How many trusts, for whom, funded with which shares, and when — analyzed against §643(f)'s multiple-trust rule, the assignment-of-income doctrine (gifts made near a sale can be recharacterized), and the per-issuer cap mechanics for your acquisition dates, including mixed pre- and post-OBBBA holdings.
Genuine non-tax purpose, documented. Trusts with real, differentiated beneficiaries, terms, and trustees — the pattern Treasury has distinguished from the structures it says concern it. We document the estate planning purpose contemporaneously, not after the fact.
Bespoke trust drafting. Carney Badley Spellman estate planning attorneys draft the non-grantor trust instruments to fit your family, your state, and your exit timeline. Washington founders get the community-property analysis — community-property characterization can collapse a two-cap position into one, and it has to be addressed in the documents, not assumed away.
Substantiation, per trust. Each trust holding QSBS needs its own eligibility file — issuance records, gross-asset support, active-business documentation across the holding period. That is the same discipline behind our attestation letter practice and QSBS Sentinel™ annual substantiation, extended to a multi-trust structure.
How This Differs From Trust Platforms
Technology platforms now offer QSBS trust setup at low flat fees — GetDynasty, for example, describes itself as a trust company for startup founders and offers trust packages starting at $2,000 per year. Platforms serve a real purpose, and for some situations they may be all that's needed.
The structural difference is what the engagement is. GetDynasty's own terms of use state that it is not a law firm or an attorney, may not perform services performed by an attorney, that its forms and templates are not a substitute for the advice or services of an attorney, and that no attorney-client relationship or privilege is created. That is not a criticism — it is the platform model, disclosed by the platform itself.
An engagement with us is the other model: an attorney-client relationship, communications protected by privilege, legal advice on your specific facts, and trust instruments drafted for your family rather than generated from a template. When each trust is expected to shelter eight figures of gain, and the government has announced it is preparing guidance aimed at this exact strategy, the question to ask is which model your situation calls for.
The fee structures also differ in shape, not just size. GetDynasty's published pricing is recurring: $2,000 per year pre-liquidity (up to four trusts), then $3,000 per year per trust after a liquidity event, plus tax preparation costs. For a founder with four trusts, that is $12,000+ every year after exit, for as long as the trusts run — over a 20-year trust horizon, $240,000 or more. The platform also advertises "cancel anytime," which is worth thinking about in this context: an irrevocable non-grantor trust needs competent administration for decades, so a structure should come with a plan for its whole life, not a subscription that can lapse. A bespoke engagement is priced as legal work — a scoped fee for the analysis and drafting, with annual substantiation thereafter if you want it — and the 20-minute call will give you a concrete number for your facts.
Who This Is For — and Who It Isn't
This engagement fits founders, early employees, and investors whose expected gain meaningfully exceeds their own per-issuer cap — typically exits in the $25M+ range — and who have family members or charitable goals that give the trusts a genuine purpose. If your expected gain fits within your own exclusion, you likely don't need stacking at all; start with the QSBS guide or an attestation letter instead. It also isn’t for founders whose exit is purely hypothetical — an irrevocable trust created “just in case” carries real annual administration costs for decades against a payoff most startup equity never produces. The planning window is a band: when a cap-exceeding exit is reasonably foreseeable, but before sale discussions begin. And timing is a real constraint: gifts made after sale discussions begin carry assignment-of-income risk that no drafting can fully cure. Earlier is better. If a transaction is already in motion, book the call anyway — the answer may be that only part of the strategy is still available, and it's better to know that now.
Who You'd Be Working With
Joe Wallin is a startup and tax attorney at Carney Badley Spellman, P.S. in Seattle, with 25+ years of practice and a Tax LL.M. from NYU. He chairs the Angel Capital Association's Legal Advisory Committee and co-authored Angel Investing: Start to Finish. His QSBS work includes attestation letters, §1202 planning for founders and funds, and the analysis behind this blog's QSBS coverage, including ongoing tracking of Treasury's stacking guidance.
Next Step
A 20-minute call is enough to determine whether stacking fits your facts, what the structure would look like, and what it would cost. Book a 20-minute call →
This page is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal or tax advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed until an engagement agreement is signed. Treasury guidance on QSBS stacking may issue at any time and could affect the strategies described here; the status statements above are current as of August 2026.