Buy, borrow, die

Buy, borrow, die — the US strategy meme: buy appreciating assets; borrow against them (SBLOC/lombard) instead of selling, deferring capital-gains realization; die, at which point US heirs receive a stepped-up basis (cost basis resets to date-of-death value) and the deferred gains escape tax entirely. Decomposed for a Filipino: the step-up doesn’t exist here — a PH estate pays 6% on the gross estate regardless of basis — so two-thirds of the magic is jurisdiction-locked. The portable third: borrowing against assets rather than selling them, conservatively, with the 2022 failure mode priced in.

First used in: 5.5 · Structures of the rich: banking tiers, trusts, PPLI, debt