Good news and Bad news

First the good news: You probably won’t get hit by a bus tomorrow. In fact, the odds are quite low. The bad news is that you could get hit by a bus tomorrow. What’s more, actuarial tables don’t lie: Someday, your proverbial bus will come. So from an estate planning standpoint, you have only two options. You can leave a tangled mess for your loved ones to sort through, or you can take a few simple steps that will make a difficult time easier. You can set up your finances so your wealth goes to your spouse and children, or you can procrastinate, increasing the risk that your cash ends up in the hands of the taxman, the lawyers or the evil husband of your ex-wife.

Estate taxes

My associates in Washington tell me that Congress will be extending the $3.5 Million exemption from federal estate taxes into 2010. Remember 2010 is when the tax was to be repealed. We all know that Congress will not let anything go without taxes. They also want to change the exemption to $1 Million and that will happen automatically in 2011.

What does this mean? If you have not done your estate planning and tax planning, you need to do it now. It's just that simple.

For all of the Financial Professionals and Life Insurance Professionals, now is the time to talk to each of your clients and tell them what is coming. This is a great opportunity to sell Life Insurance in an ILIT.

Great estate planning articles

Good morning, everyone. Yesterday was a busy day for online articles about estate planning. CBS MarketWatch.com posted a “Feature Package” of articles titled Keep the Money in the Family - short, simple articles that are an excellent reminder for all of us about the need to do planning. Available online at

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/retirement-planning/feature/keep-the-money-in-the-family/338108/?tag=content;col1

and Forbes.com posted an article titled You Go-To Guide to Estate Planning, available online at

http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/02/estate-financial-planning-forbes-woman-net-worth-guide.html

Directed at women, this is another simple explanation as to why people should plan, with links to related articles.

I encourage you to read these articles as a reminder as to why you should plan your estate now.