Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Time to Tweak Your Estate Plan




By Dan Hughes

Article by Bill Bischoff

That said, you need to be careful. This leap in the exemption could throw your estate plan out of whack. Without a careful review of your arrangements, part of your estate could be allocated in ways you didn't intend.

But before I go any further, let me just make a plea to all of you who took a look at that $3.5 billion figure and decided this article definitely does not apply to you. Sure, $3.5 million sounds like an awful lot of money. But you might be wealthier than you think. For federal estate-tax purposes, your estate includes your home, cars, retirement accounts, taxable investment accounts, collectibles, and so forth.

Perhaps more important, it also includes any death benefits from personal life-insurance policies you own, including those on your own life. (If you have the power to change beneficiaries or coverage amounts, you own the policy.) With life-insurance coverage thrown into the mix, the odds are much higher that your estate exceeds the seemingly generous $2.5 million exemption. So if you don't already have an estate-tax saving strategy in place, now may be the time to create one. For assistance in getting started, see our estate planning section.

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