Flathead County No. 2 in state in inheritance levels
A recent study from the financial blog SmartAsset computed the counties in Montana with the largest inheritance amounts and placed Flathead County at the No. 2 spot.
SmartAsset’s study looks at estate assets transferred, adds those to life insurance payouts and subtracts estate taxes to reach a total figure.
Flathead County residents received more than $91.6 million in inheritance in the study’s 2012 timeframe, with $20.6 million in assets transferred, $71.6 million in life insurance and $628,000 in estate taxes.
Only Yellowstone County had more inheritance, nearly double Flathead’s amount at $166 million.
Two other Northwest Montana counties rounded out the top 10. Lake County was ninth with $29.5 million and Lincoln County was 10th with $24.7 million.
Even though a lot of wealth changed hands, the three Northwest Montana counties were among the lowest for estate taxes paid. Flathead actually ranked 54th out of the 56 Montana counties for estate taxes paid, while Lincoln and Lake counties were 46th and 47th, respectively.
SmartAsset is an online database that provides a number of tools for understanding mortgage, retirement and insurance services. The company also sells credit monitoring.
The data for the rankings came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Internal Revenue Service, American Council of Life Insurers, and Esri.
SmartAsset looked at data on wealth transfers made during estate settlements and life insurance payouts to find the counties with the largest annual inheritance payments. Here is the methodology as explained on the company’s website:
“We calculated county-level wealth transfers by taking the product of each county’s average household wealth and the annual number of deaths among wealth-holding individuals (those aged 25 or older). To determine total life-insurance payouts, we looked at life insurance coverage rates and statewide insurance payouts — counties with higher coverage rates were assigned a higher proportion of each state’s total insurance payout.
“Finally, from the total of wealth transfers and insurance payouts, we subtracted total estate taxes paid at the county level, based on state-level estate tax payments and per capita wealth in each county.”