Estate inclusion is the determination that an asset's value is included in a decedent's gross estate for estate-tax purposes. Inclusion can result from incidents of ownership, retained interests, or beneficiary rights. In life insurance, inclusion occurs if the decedent owned the policy or had powers over it at death or within three years of transfer, affecting estate tax exposure.

Advisors audit ownership and incidents of ownership to avoid unintended inclusion of policies or assets. Cleaning up beneficiary designations and moving policies to ILITs early helps control exposure. Education prevents clients from retaining powers that pull assets back into the taxable estate.