You own something you can't afford to sell.

Advisors call it trapped capital. Upstream unlocks it, using an estate tax allowance your parents will never use.

Four minutes. No email until the end.

Founder stock bought for $250,000. Worth $6,000,000 today. You're in Washington, and both your parents are living.

A New Hampshire trust with one unusual clause.

Five named seats, and a single provision that does the work.

The protector gives each parent a power that exists only on paper, and only at death.

Because they hold it when they die, the tax code counts those assets in their estate. Because their estate is well under the exemption, no tax is owed. The basis resets anyway. The assets never move, and nothing passes through anyone's will.

What you keep, and what you give up.

The second list is short, and it's the reason the first one holds.

Five assets. One question about your parents.

Upstream only works on things carrying a built-in gain. There is no cash option, because cash has no gain to erase.

That's the whole test. The gap between what they're worth and their exemption is the allowance Upstream borrows. It expires unused at their death and benefits nobody. Two living parents means two allowances and two resets.