How one family spends $27,000 a year to prepare for estate tax

Even if a business owner's heirs can afford to keep a business in the family, the effort isn't cheap, according to this report from MSNBC:

Congress' latest failure to decide the estate tax's future frustrates Kip Coleman, vice president of Hamilton Supply Co., a family-owned building materials company in Hamilton, N.J.

He and his brothers have been paying about $22,000 a year for a $1 million life insurance policy on their 81-year-old parents so they can pay taxes on the estate when their parents die. They pay attorneys another $5,000 or so a year for estate planning.

And, according to the report, the sons still may have to borrow a couple of million to meet the tax costs.