The year 2012 presents families with an unprecedented opportunity to minimize the federal estate taxes their children will have to pay. Unfortunately, these opportunities are scheduled to expire on December 31st if Congress does not intervene.  You should take advantage by revisiting your estate plan now.
 
In the 2010 Tax Act Congress made the following changes to the estate, gift and generation skipping transfer (“GST”) tax rates:
* Increased the estate, gift and exemptions to $5 million per person for 2011 and $5.12 million for 2012
* Reduced the estate, gift and GST tax rates to 35% for amounts over the exemption levels
* Established portability of the estate tax exemption between husband and wife so that if a deceased spouse does not use all of his or her exemption at death, the surviving spouse can use that remaining exemption at death. This means that both can shelter more than $10 million dollars from estate tax for their heirs. These wonderful benefits expire on December 31, 2012 if Congress does not pass a bill to extend them. On January 1, 2013 the following exemptions and rates will take effect:\
* $1.0 million estate and gift tax exemption and $1.36 million GST exemption
* Maximum estate, gift and GST tax rate of 55%
* No portability
 
Many options are available to you from trusts to gifts of business or real estate interests to intra-family loans to capture the benefits of the current law. We look forward to assisting you in accomplishing  your estate planning  goals.