montgomeryadvertiser.com :: Financial plan should include future generations

montgomeryadvertiser.com :: Financial plan should include future generations: "Financial plan should include future generations

An important idea gets lost easily amid all the talk about the future of the estate tax. Intergenerational financial planning is about more than taxes. To be sure, preserving wealth for your family is a worthy goal. But creating a comprehensive plan can help you achieve even more. You efficiently can transfer both your assets and your values to future generations, and thus help prepare your loved ones to lead more fulfilling lives.

For now, at least, the estate tax remains an important though unpredictable planning consideration. Today, you can leave up to $1.5 million tax-free to your heirs. This estate-tax exemption is scheduled to increase to $2 million in 2006 and then to $3.5 million in 2009. Unless Congress repeals the federal estate tax altogether -- the House has approved a permanent repeal, but no one knows for certain if legislation will pass the Senate -- the tax will disappear in 2010, only to reappear the following year at the previous exclusion amount of $1 million."