Wealth Management: the book

What are estate planning attorneys going to do with themselves if the estate tax goes bye-bye?

On his TaxProf blog, Paul L. Caron sees an answer embodied in a new textbook:

In recent years there has been enormous political pressure to cut federal taxes, especially for taxpayers in the upper echelons of the income and wealth scale. The future of the federal estate tax remains especially controversial, as indicated by competing proposals to repeal the tax permanently or to raise the exemption substantially above the amounts provided under present law. As a result, estate planning courses may be forced to make significant changes in scope and emphasis if they are to retain their traditional importance and interest for students. By the same token, most individuals and families will confront a host of financial planning issues that are entirely independent of the existence of an estate tax or the size of an estate tax exemption. These issues relate to managing investments, protecting assets, meeting the costs of higher education, financing the purchase of a home, obtaining disability and life insurance coverage, providing for retirement security, and planning for incapacity and succession at the end of life.

The new volume, Turnier & McCouch's Materials on Family Wealth Management, covers wealth, taxes, insurance, elder law and more.

Are lawyers going to turn into private bankers and financial planners? Maybe it's only fair. Remember the days when estate planning was used so vigorously to market trusts that members of the bar complained about "the unauthorized practice of law"?