Under the tax-cut compromise passed in December, individuals generally may gift up to $5 million during their lifetime without paying tax. That threshold will revert to $1 million in 2013 unless Congress acts.

"Move that $5 million now to your children or grandchildren to lock that in if you're afraid that will go away," Beerman said. That way the appreciation on those assets is out of an estate, Beerman said.

The debate around taxes and deficit reduction will continue into the 2012 election because lawmakers can't agree, said Deloitte's Stretch. "People who want clarity will have to wait."

Stabilizing Debt

"Over the last decade this country has failed to live within our budget," Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a May 3 budget-hearing statement. "It is time to craft deficit reduction legislation that will stabilize debt held by the public by 2014 or 2015."

During a May 16 speech, House Budget Committee chairman Representative Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said that cutting spending and reforming government programs will reduce the U.S. debt. "The government cannot close its enormous fiscal gap simply by taxing the rich," Ryan said in his prepared remarks before the Economic Club of Chicago.

It's unpatriotic for the rich to oppose higher taxes because the distribution of wealth in America has become so skewed, said Jerry Rockefeller, 81, of Brandon, Florida.

"The country is calling on the wealthy to kick in and help," as when everyone "stepped up" during World War II, said Rockefeller, who's retired and used to run his own consulting business in New York for publishing firms. "The middle class can't do it. They've been kicked dry."

 

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