Ramifications of Federal Estate Tax Appeal

The federal estate tax has been repealed for 2010 only and will be re-imposed in 2011. Congressional efforts to cancel the repeal failed late last year. Now that Congress is back in session, it is likely Congress will again try to cancel the repeal retroactive to January 1, 2010. Even if the repeal is canceled in the coming months, we can only speculate what will be enacted. This will continue to cause a great deal of uncertainty and confusion for our clients until Congress takes some definitive action. We at The Health Law Partners appreciate that this legislative anomaly potentially triggers a challenging situation in which some estate planning documents may no longer work as intended if a client dies in 2010. In response to this change, our colleagues at the law firm of Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer & Weiss, P.C. have prepared the attached Jaffe Alert outlining the relevance of the federal estate tax developments. This represents an issue on which it is imperative to be proactive.

For more information, please contact Carey F. Kalmowitz, Esq. at (248) 996-8510, and Carey can direct you to the appropriate estate planning attorney at Jaffe.