Finding The Estate Plan That Is Uniquely You

There is an old adage that holds that there are two things that are certain - namely, death and taxes. However, a more correct adage might be that there are two things that are uncertain - death and taxes. The former, because no one knows the length of his or her life, and the latter because the new tax law estate tax provisions are phased in over a 10 year period after which the old rules reemerge, and no one knows how Congress will alter them. At any rate, it is virtually certain that inflation will result in increasingly large estates for most people. The IRS has released some data showing the distribution of 1999 estates by size. Here is the breakdown

 

Estate Size	% of Estates
$600,000 - 1 million	38%
$1 million - $2.5 million	46%
$2.5 million - $5 million	10%
$5 million - $10 million	4%
Over $10 million	2%

It's evident that many people will have sizable multi-million dollar estates by 2010 when the estate tax is to be repealed. But watch out because the tax may come back in 2011 on estates over $1 million with a maximum rate of 55% Clearly, anyone who is accumulating wealth needs to continue to obtain professional estate planning advice and employ strategies such a gift giving to protect future generations of family members.

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