A billionaire's death renews interest in bringing back the federal estate tax

First, make sure your estate documents are up to date and still reflect your wishes.

Dennis Suckstorf, a senior financial planner at Financial Advantage in Columbia, says his firm began reviewing clients' estate documents more than a year ago to make sure "they were flexible enough to be used whether the estate tax went up or down."

A new Maryland law can also help you if your documents haven't been revised for years.

Wills often refer to the federal estate tax exemptions when divvying up assets among a spouse and children. But what happens when there is no federal limit? Lawyers worried that some relatives might be unintentionally disinherited this year if a will hasn't been updated.

This year, Maryland along with eight other states passed legislation to avoid such problems.

Now, if an old will in Maryland refers to the federal estate tax limits, the presumption is that the deceased meant those in the 2009 law. And a beneficiary or executor could ask a court to determine whether the deceased intended something else.

Some lawyers and advisers are also recommending that people reduce the size of their estate, given that it might be subject to taxes in the future. One way to do that is by giving away money now.

You can give up to $13,000 a year to an individual without any gift-tax issues. And Suckstorf says many of his clients are writing big checks to colleges to pay the tuition for grandchildren, again without triggering gift taxes.

"Doing that reduces their estate and gets money to younger generations," he says.

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