The 1031 exchange comes with a clock: 45 days to identify a replacement, 180 days to close, and the new asset has to be like-kind. For sellers who can’t make those constraints work, there’s another structure worth understanding.

On this episode of Value Add Strategy, Matt sits down with Brett Swarts, Founder of Capital Gains Tax Solutions and author of Building a Capital Gains Tax Exit Plan, to unpack the Deferred Sales Trust (DST, not to be confused with the Delaware Statutory Trust). The structure has been in use for more than 30 years, is built on IRS Section 453 installment sale reporting, and removes the timing and like-kind constraints that define a 1031.

Brett walks through how a seller shifts from owner to creditor of the trust at close, why that shift is what defers the gain, and how the same structure can be used to eliminate estate tax on a fully appreciated asset in a single sale. He also covers the objections every CPA raises and the track record behind them: thousands of closes, roughly $1B in assets sold through the structure each year, and 35 no-change audits to date.