Who Owns What?

摘要

The federal estate tax exemption is now $1.5 million per person. So a married couple worth $3 million can pass on all their wealth to their kids or other heirs without any federal tax, right? Not necessarily. The biggest hitch lies in an often overlooked detail: whose name is on the property. Say the wife has $2 million of assets in her name and the husband $1 million. If he dies first, $500,000 of the couple's combined exemption could be lost. As the estate tax exemption rises―it will go to $2 million in 2006―wealthy folks, who never had to worry about this issue, are tripping over it. Less affluent families get caught in titling traps too, leading assets to be distributed in unintended ways and causing squabbles among heirs.