Advice for how not to plan your estate

摘要

SOMETIMES press releases present solutions looking for problems. One such came in the other day. It began: "In December 2010, Congress approved and the president signed a multi-billion-dollar tax cut package, which will unknowingly result in the partial disinheritance of the surviving spouse. "We are now in a completely different estate tax environment ripe for the cru-elest trap of all: where the standard language of traditional wills and trusts forces too much money (now up to $5 million) into a trust, limiting the surviving spouse to income and the right to invade principal for health, maintenance and support.