[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Vince, I think this comment about financial planning is really key. > > My great uncle passed away earlier this year. He was 92. He was > completely unwilling to talk with anyone about a will or anything else. > He was admittedly superstitious about discussing his death. His estate > was not insignificant - more than half a million dollars. > > In my own experience, the views he held are not uncommon among older black > folks. > >
Exactly, Brenda! Now your uncles heirs paid no federal taxes on 500,000 because that is well below the amount needed to file a federal 706. Depending on his state of residence determined state estate tax - in Michigan there would have been done. A lot of people have your uncle's attitudes. It is sad because it can cost the heirs money. Of course federal estate tax, starts at the net of the estate, and given certain allowed expenses - the grandest cemetery marker you ever saw and some good sized expenses of administration - it is possible to get a larger estate under the limit. Hope your uncle had a will..,. but I have said, it is what people fail to do, or do on their own without legal expertise, that pays my salary! Vince
