Forbes:  “Putting affairs in order before it's too late is important.  Celebrity stories can help spring clients into action.  As professionals, one of the challenges that we have is motivating our clients to do their estate planning. You can educate clients about the proper estate planning and how it can help them, their families and their estate tax returns. The fact of the matter remains, however, that many clients will have excuses to push their legal planning to the back burner.  Whatever the reasons, procrastination is common when it comes to clients doing the proper estate planning . . . . “

naplesnews.com:  “If your net worth is high enough to be subject to the evil estate tax, chances are you worked your tail off all or most of your adult life to accumulate your wealth. But draw your last breath and the estate tax monster wants to devour about half your wealth. Not a pretty picture.  It’s sad  Worse yet is the complete failure of almost all professional advisors to take you, your family and your business out of the horrible estate tax picture.  Die, and your estate pays; but fortunately, you – with the right tax planning – don’t have to lose any of your wealth to the estate tax monster.   Do you have enough wealth to be clobbered by the estate tax? Then read every word of this article; you’ll learn how to keep your wealth.”

Daily Finance:  “At first blush, Casey Johnson and Ruth Lilly, who died within days of each other around the new year, could hardly have been more different.  Johnson . . ., who died at 30, was a party animal who lived her life in the public eye, most recently as the fiancée of D-list celebrity Tila Tequila.  Lilly, 94, made her biggest waves not with clubbing but philanthropy — most famously with her $200 million donation in 2002 to the Poetry Foundation, a bequest so eye-popping that the controversy surrounding it hasn't yet died down.  But scratch the surface, and similarities emerge.  Johnson and Lilly were both heiresses to major corporate fortunes: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY).  Both had massive personal wealth tied up in trusts they couldn't access directly.  And both fortunes illustrate a yearlong Congress-induced quirk that could greatly benefit the heirs to anyone who dies this year, cost the U.S. billions of tax revenue, and drive estate-planning lawyers crazy.”

New York Times:  “I am utterly spent by the time my father lands in the emergency room, shortly after 1 a.m. on a cold January night.  We have been through the drill so many times that when the nursing home calls to tell me the ambulance just left, I do not even bother to phone my siblings, who live in other states.”

“Does your father have a living will?”  I freeze. No emergency room doctor has asked me this before. I answer, evenly, yes. “Do you have durable power of attorney?” Yes.  Visibly relieved, he looks me in the eye and gently but pointedly asks: “Does your father want us to employ extreme measures” — he pauses one heartbeat for emphasis — “knowing that he is not likely to improve?”

Washington Post:  “Heather Pierce lives in Glover Park, but much of her life floats in the cloud.  Her e-mail is stored in that vast digital space, bouncing between Yahoo server farms. Her bank statements reside there, too, along with her mortgage payments, credit card files, movie rental account, library book list, home videos and hundreds of photos — on Shutterfly, Facebook and her blog. She has only a few hard-copy photos of her 17-month-old daughter.  If Pierce's house caught fire, what would she dash in to save?  Not much, probably. . . . Pierce, 38, recently paid $29.99 to sign up for a year's access to yet another account in the cloud — one that stores all her passwords and log-in information and, when the worst happens, will be accessible to whomever she designates as digital executor.”

NoozHawk:  “Asking whether you need estate planning is a much bigger question than asking whether your estate will be taxed after you die because it’s small enough to be exempt from the estate tax law.  Although the value of your estate is one of the first questions you must answer before proceeding, it’s more important to decide who will receive the assets you have and when.  Who should be responsible for taking care of your minor children, or disabled loved ones, if you become unable to do so”You need to know who should manage those assets if you can’t, both during your lifetime and after your death.

Financial Planning:  “When it comes to estate planning, wealthy families don’t worry whether there will be enough money for the kids but whether the kids will be responsible enough to handle the money.  Playing a role in preparing heirs is a key way for advisors to distinguish their businesses, be more visible among centers of influence, get client referrals and maintain heirs as clients.  Each year over 7,000 estates worth more than $20 million transition from one generation to the next, but while estate planners are 98% effective at preparing these assets to be passed on, that preparation goes to waste in 70% of the cases. (In some 20% to 25% of wealthy families, the heirs end up suing each other).

The Trust Advisor: “As more wealthy families cross borders to protect assets, they choose to set up personal trusts in states other than their own to take advantage of favorable trust laws.  According to recent data, 72 percent of U.S. households with more than $1 million in investment assets use trusts as a key component to their estate planning.  The main reasons to cross borders are:

• Some states don’t tax assets held in a trust, while distributions might be taxable in your home state.
• Trust codes in some states seek to protect assets from lawsuits and creditors.
• Some states allow “dynasty trusts” which permit future generations to avoid estate taxes.”

The study divides the “good” states Tier 1 (Alaska, South Dakota, Nevada & Delaware), Tier 2 (Florida, New Hampshire & Wyoming) and Tier 3 (Colorado, Idaho, Ohio, Wisconsin & Utah).

Motley Fool:  “Despite what you may think, estate planning isn't all about what happens after you die.  Besides death, there are plenty of other unpleasantries — accident, injury, or other maladies that make you unable to manage your own affairs for a while — that can go much more smoothly for you and your loved ones if you've prepared for them ahead of time.  Planning your estate doesn't have to be painful.  Spend a minute to get your bearings and see how easy it can be to get your affairs in order.”

Boston.com:  “Muriel Bayne’s love for her cats was well known on Staniford Street in Auburndale. Neighborhood children called her the ‘Cat Lady'’ and Bayne’s pets were often seen contentedly peering from a picture window at the small ranch house where she lived for decades.  But Bayne, 77, had a weak heart. And after her husband’s death in 2001, she started worrying about what would happen to her cats when she died.  So she penned a will, leaving them the home and a $300,000 trust.  Weeks later, Bayne’s heart gave out.”

Oregonlive.com:  “Plenty of gallows humor got bandied around when it became clear late last month that, amazingly, Congress was going to let the nation's estate tax lapse.   Whether any enfeebled people really were kept alive until 2010 to save their fortunes from taxation . . . . But the resulting vacuum has left estate lawyers and their wealthy clients in a different kind of coma.  And it might pose issues for middle-class heirs, too.   As it stands, there is no federal ‘death tax' on assets inherited by heirs who aren't spouses.  Congress didn't act quickly enough to extend or even revise the expired law that taxed inheritances above $3.5 million at up to 45 percent.  Next year, however, the tax returns to its 2001 version.  That is, only the first $1 million in assets will be shielded from Uncle Sam's grasp.”

New York Times:  “DEATH and taxes, the adage goes, are the only certainties in life. But when it comes to the combination of the two, the estate tax, there is only uncertainty for 2010.   Most tax advisers thought that Congress would extend the estate tax before it was due to expire at the end of last year. But while the House did act, the Senate did not. So what few predicted would happen did happen: the tax is gone for one year but set to be revived in 2011 at a higher rate and a lower exemption, unless Congress acts.  It’s the first time since 1916 that rich Americans can contemplate dying without one last tax.”

Forbes.com:  “Hotel heiress Leona Helmsley did it, and so can you–provide for your pets after you're gone. Forty-two states and the District of Columbia now have laws that specifically authorize the creation of trusts for the care of pets. That's up from 16 states in 2003, with Connecticut, Maryland and Vermont enacting their pet trust laws just last year.”

San Francisco Chronicle:  “Astonishing just about everyone in the estate planning world, Congress let the estate tax expire in 2010.  While people who support the death of the estate tax might be jumping for joy, its temporary expiration comes with side effects and unintended consequences that will perplex many people and leave some worse off than they were last year.  People who set up bypass trusts leaving some money to their kids and the rest to their spouse and those whose assets have more than $1.3 million worth of appreciation might want to consult their estate planner.  What's really bewildering is the possibility that Congress will impose an estate tax retroactively to Jan. 1 (which probably would be challenged in court) or do nothing and let the estate tax come back with a vengeance in 2011.”

Law professor Gerry W. Beyer of Texas Tech University School of Law has written an article about pet trusts called “Pets Trusts: Fido with a Fortune?”

Dogs, cats, parrots, and other pet animals play extremely significant roles in the lives of many individuals. People own pets for a variety of reasons – they love animals, they enjoy engaging in physical activity with the animal such as playing ball or going for walks, and they enjoy the giving and receiving of attention and unconditional love. Research indicates that pet ownership positively impacts the owner’s life by lowering blood pressure, reducing stress and depression, lowering the risk of heart disease, shortening the recovery time after a hospitalization, and improving concentration and mental attitude.

The primary goal of the pet owner’s attorney is to carry out the pet owner’s intent to the fullest extent allowed under applicable law. Accordingly, the attorney should select a method which has the highest likelihood of working successfully to provide for the pet after its owner’s death. (The pet owner should also determine if any special arrangements need to be made to care for the pet if the owner becomes disabled.) After discussing the history of providing for a pet after the owner’s death, this article discusses the variety of techniques currently available and comments on the advisability of each.

Special features of this article include: sample pet trust provisions; “client-friendly” FAQs; summary of tax concerns with pet trusts; comprehensive appendix with links to all pet trust statutes (42 states plus D.C.).

CBSMoneyWatch.com:  “At first glance, the failure of Congress to plug the 2010 estate tax loophole appears to be good news for children of ailing rich parents — and of little consequence to everyone else.  But in fact, by letting the tax lapse, Congress has created a bunch of unintended consequences and increased the chances that you will owe taxes on an inheritance.  Yes, the perverse result of the disappearing estate tax is that some people of lesser means may owe capital gains taxes on inherited assets.  What’s more, since many wills and trusts are written on the assumption that the estate tax exists, a will that made sense last year (or any other year, for that matter) could result in your surviving spouse getting shut of your estate.  Here’s what you need to know about the estate tax, and how to protect yourself and your heirs, at least until Congress takes action.”

Wealth Strategies Journal:  “We plan and plan and plan yet the best laid plans go wrong! We plan for contingencies and provide for flexibility yet people can end up bewitched, snafued, flummoxed, and frustrated.  How does a train jump the carefully laid out tracks?  Here we have a few examples of such derailment including an executor's worst nightmare of personal liability for estate tax, a will that stymied a lucrative building sale (after 99 years!) and trusts that needed to be terminated by hook or by crook.”

The Trust Advisor Blog:  “Who has rights to digital property after death or incapacitation?  Why is it important to consider digital property in estate plans? . . . Recently, a great deal of attention has been given to the digital life after death – especially gaining access to a deceased person’s email accounts.  We have entered into an age where digital storage is replacing physical document storage.  In the future, more important property will be created, revised, and stored digitally.  And as more people move important components of their lives onto the computer (from photos to legal documents, medical records and beyond), it becomes necessary to devise a safe and secure method for a deceased or otherwise incapacitated person’s loved ones to access digital property.  A recent article from The Wall Street Journal suggests everyone establish a separate plan to deal with online property issues when they die or become incapacitated.

Wall St. Journal:  “Spouses of those wealthy who die this year might find themselves with nothing if the family will isn't revised—a major wrinkle that could follow Friday's repeal of the federal estate tax.  As started on Jan. 1, estate taxes will be repealed for 2010 only. That means unless Congress acts otherwise, there is no limit to the wealth that can be passed on to heirs without incurring federal estate taxes through the end of the year.  But wills have often been written on the expectation that estate taxes were a fact of life for years to come, estate planners say. As a result, wills typically direct assets not subject to the tax be passed on to children—for 2009, up to $3.5 million—with the rest directed to the spouse.”