Eliminate the estate tax...legally: Transfer all your wealth, including your business. (Tax Planning).

Industrial Distribution, May, 2002 by Blackman, Irving L.

IN A HEARTBEAT THE TAX-LAW -- especially the estate tax law -- can rip a family's wealth to shreds. Luckily, thanks to the Tax Relief Act of 2001, the estate tax has been repealed, right?

Wrong. The short (and real) answer is ... only if you die in 2010.

The new law is a tiger that actually changes its estate tax stripes every year -- starting in 2002 all the way until 2011.

The longer you live during the years 2002-2009, the less your estate tax burden might be. This tiger's stripes change -- in two ways -- almost every year. First, the highest estate tax rate is gradually reduced from 55 percent to 45 percent. Second, the exemption (the amount of your assets that can be left tax-free at death) rises to $1 million in 2002 (up from...