For professional women who have worked hard to build financial independence, giving money to children or grandchildren can feel deeply meaningful. Maybe $19,000 would mean more to your daughter while she’s buying her first home than it will 25 years from now. Maybe helping with a grandchild’s tuition would make a bigger difference today. Or perhaps you’d enjoy seeing your family benefit from some of your wealth while you’re still here.
In 2026, an individual can generally give up to $19,000 per recipient without using any of their federal lifetime gift and estate tax exemption. For married couples, that can potentially mean $38,000 per recipient when each spouse makes a qualifying gift.
But knowing how much you can give is only the beginning. Let’s talk about if you should.
Be Careful with Appreciated Assets
Giving cash is fairly simple. Giving investments or property can be more complicated.
If you give someone stock, mutual funds, real estate, or another asset that has increased in value, they generally receive your original cost basis. In plain English: they may inherit the built-in tax bill along with the gift.
Say you bought stock for $10,000 and it is now worth $29,000. If you give those shares to your daughter and she sells them, she may owe capital gains tax on much of the $19,000 gain.
That matters because assets inherited after someone dies may receive a basis adjustment to their current value, which can potentially reduce capital gains taxes for heirs. (CLICK HERE for the IRS explanation on how basis works for gifted property, including why the donor’s adjusted basis matters.) Before transferring appreciated investments or property, it is worth speaking with your financial advisor and tax professional.
Another Option: Pay Directly
If you want to help with education or healthcare, paying the bill directly can be a smart option.
You may generally pay qualifying tuition directly to a school or qualifying medical expenses directly to a provider or insurance company without using your $19,000 annual gift exclusion. That means you could potentially pay a grandchild’s college tuition directly to the university and still make a separate annual gift.
The details matter. For education, the exclusion generally applies to tuition, not room and board, books, or other living expenses. And payments need to go straight to the school, medical provider, or insurer rather than to your family member. (The IRS identifies direct tuition and medical payments as important exceptions to the usual gift-tax rules.)
For families helping more than one generation, knowing these rules can give you more flexibility to support the people you love without unnecessarily limiting your other gifting options.
Give With a Plan
The annual gift-tax exclusion is a useful tool, but it should support your bigger goals—not drive them.
Before making a gift, ask yourself:
- Would this money have significantly more impact on my family today than later?
- Can I make this gift without changing my own long-term financial security?
- Am I giving the right asset, or am I accidentally passing along a large future tax bill?
- Could paying tuition or medical expenses directly be more efficient?
- Am I treating children fairly, and does “fair” necessarily mean giving everyone the same amount at the same time?
- How does this gift fit into my larger estate plan?
The goal is not to give away the maximum amount; it’s to use your resources in a way that supports the people you love while protecting the independence and security you’ve worked so hard to build.
At C. Beach Brown, we can help you look at your entire financial picture and determine how much you can comfortably give, which assets may make the most sense to transfer, and how those decisions fit into your long-term estate and retirement plans.
Ready to make your giving more intentional? Let’s talk.