Estate planning tidbits

The author of this Washington Post Op-Ed piece certainly doesn't favor estate-tax repeal, but he suggests there's broad Senate support for raising the estate-tax exemption to a permanent $3.5 million ($7 million for couples). Inflation adjusted?

Wall Street Journal subscribers can read about the increasingly common problem of estate planning involving children from previous marriages and stepchildren. The trick is to defuse disputes by treating all the kids fairly. Problem: As the end of the article suggests, a lot depends on what you mean by "fairly."

Where there are a number of surviving spouses or ex-spouses, you can bet one or more will think, "How dare he leave my kids no more than he left his kids by that floozie!"