"The primary economic reason they're doing this is to get rich," Rikoon says. "But if they're just getting into the field, the safest thing for them to do is set up their fund first and see how it does before worrying too much about estate planning. That's not necessarily the conclusion one would have reached a few years ago."

The Heckerling conference, which began 43 years ago as a gathering of about 300 estate attorneys, now has about 3,000 attendees, representing every facet of estate planning, from the legal and tax side to the investment side-though 70% of the participants are lawyers.

Portuondo says the program is planned months in advance, but always has some flexibility built into it to address any changes to the estate tax, especially those that come in the wake of a presidential election. Some of the speakers are apparently modifying their talks to reflect the current economic climate as well.

"The speakers are nimble enough to tailor their presentations," she says.

Among the other topics likely to be discussed at the conference are how to plan for changes to estate tax law that may result from the new administration of President-elect Barack Obama and greater Democratic control of Congress. Among the questions: Should people take action now, accelerating income or taking capital gains before the tax laws change? Or should they wait to see what happens first, since it's not a great time to be selling assets?