Estate Planning Update – still no federal estate tax

So far this year, there is no federal estate tax. This creates a planning quagmire.

Depending on how the estate tax clause is drafted in your estate plan, you could have the entire estate passing to children instead of a portion to the surviving spouse, or all of the estate passing to the surviving spouse, not using any state estate tax credit such that unnecessary state estate taxes become due at the first death.

Until Congress acts to pass a law to retroactively restore the federal estate tax, as expected, you should check your tax clause and review it with your attorney to see if a revision is in order.

You may find that your documents adequately deal with the combination of no federal estate tax and applicable state estate tax. Or, you may find that an amendment to your documents is needed to address this issue.

While reviewing the tax issue, make sure your durable powers of attorney and health care proxies or medial directives are also up to date.

Let us know if you have questions or comments. Thanks,

Steven