However, you should not that estate planning to avoid estate taxes requires a longer term outlook because it is necessary for the parents to invest money during their lifetime to create an estate plan which will not save the parents any money but will save substantial amounts of money for their children. It has been my experience that most Americans, even those who are very patriotic, do not wish to pay any more taxes than are essential, even if those taxes might be paid after their death. Estate planning to avoid estate taxes should be seriously explored by any husband and wife who have an estate over the estate exemption amount for that year and wish to organize their estate in such a way as to minimize the estate taxes that their children will otherwise have to pay. The cost of planning and implementing a plan to avoid estate taxes is very small in comparison to the estate taxes that can be saved. There are other estate planning techniques which are available to anyone having more than the current estate exemption amount of net worth.
Estate planning is simply another form of financial planning.
For those people who planned well enough to have accumulated an estate above the estate exemption amount, it is no less important to do estate planning to avoid estate taxes when your estate transfers to your children. If you have a net worth in excess of the federal estate tax exemption amount, you should contact a person experienced in estate planning so that you can become fully aware of the estate tax liability your children will have and also be fully aware of what the options are to minimize or eliminate those estate taxes. Since the most common method of avoiding estate taxes is to cumulate the federal exemption that every person has under federal estate tax laws, is is essential for a family that this planning be done by both spouses during their lifetimes. If one spouse dies and no planning has been done, one federal exemption amount will have already been wasted. Nothing is so easy as putting off reasonable estate planning.