"As clients transfer wealth, this is an opportune time to start helping them set in place governance structures that enable younger generations to learn the skills and values necessary for success in handling wealth," Przybylski says.
Like the gift-tax-free amount, the estate tax exemption is scheduled to fall to $1 million on January 1, 2013. But that figure is lower than either presidential candidate advocates. President Obama has proposed a $3.5 million exemption, while Romney wants to eliminate the death tax altogether.
Could this be anymore unsettled?
"Just about anything can happen," says Steve Oshins, an estate planning attorney and partner in Oshins & Associates LLC, in Las Vegas. "We learned with the 2010 Tax Relief Act that the transfer tax is really just a pawn that can be thrown in by either side to get a much larger deal done."
Oshins advises assuming a $1 million exemption when deciding how much life insurance to buy to cover death taxes. If the exemption is higher when the client passes and the policy proceeds surpass the tax due, the family nets a windfall.
On a final note, some good news for small business owners: Employers who filed fewer than 250 Forms W-2 for 2011 wages are exempt from reporting employer-paid health-care costs on next spring's W-2s. Find recent IRS guidance at www.irs.gov/uac/Employer-Provided-Health-Coverage-Informational-Reporting-Requirements:-Questions-and-Answers.