Estate planning is the preparing of legal documents to carry out your testamentary intent. Estate planning does not just take into account the high net worth individual who is primarily concerned about estate taxes, but rather planning for everyone’s testamentary intent. Testamentary intent is what you want to happen when you die. Notwithstanding, the general definition estate planning can include sophisticated gifting options to reduce one’s taxable estate and avoid or diminish federal and state estate taxes.
Why Most People Should Be In Favor of the Federal Estate Tax
I think it is a very easy and popular position to be against the federal estate tax (affectionately known as the "death tax"). The arguments against the estate tax range from the simple, "the government should death tax it is hard enough" to the bit more sophisticated, "the decedent was already taxed on all earnings and capital gains." Despite being a libertarian I think I could even make an argument, albeit a weak one, that there may be societal good in preventing a further concentration of wealth. It is weak because even with the estate tax there has been an obvious concentration [...]