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It looks like the federal estate tax will be restored on January 1, 2011, and a lot of families are going to feel it, says a New York Estate Lawyer.

No one knows for sure, however, which is creating plenty of uncertainty when it comes to financial planning, especially for the retired, who may have to decide how much they can live on and how much they will have to give away as gifts to avoid being taxed.

The estate tax in 2009 allowed $3.5 million to be exempt, according to New York Estate Lawyers. The tax, should it return in 2011, will only allow a $1 million exemption, and rise from the old rate of 45 percent to a new rate of 55 percent.

That old saying about death and taxes being the only sure things may not be as sure as they it used to be, thanks to impending changes in U.S. tax law, a New York Estate Lawyer reports. It is still unknown whether Congress will do anything to extend or change the Bush-era tax cuts. Experts tell New York Estate Lawyers this makes planning details for business or finance quite a bit more difficult.

Since businesses do not know how much money will be available, they are afraid to hire. Investors in mom-and-pop organizations don’t know whether or not to sell their stocks before their taxes rise or to hold on to what they have. Estate planning has also become a thorny problem, since the estate tax may or may not return and even the level of taxation should it come back is unsure, New York Estate Lawyers say.

“’Uncertainty is the word of the month,” the CEO of a financial advisory firm which counsels small businesses told a New York Estate Lawyer. “How can you possibly make a decision when the future outside of your control is so cloudy.” The in-and-outs of financial law is tricky enough even without all the changes that new legislation can bring. It can take a great deal of time, effort, and skill just to keep abreast of the changes, let alone how to make them work so businesses can prosper and investors can make informed decisions.

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The last twenty years has seen a great increase in bankruptcy, not only in number, but in the age of those affected by bankruptcy, a New York Estate Lawyer reports. In 2007, about 7% of those who filed for bankruptcy were over the age of 64. The number was only 2.1% in 1991. The median age for bankruptcy was 43 in 2007, and only 36.5 in 1991.

There are more elderly people than before, but not enough to account for the shift in bankruptcy. A new study suggests credit card debt is the problem. New York Estate Lawyers learned from data gathered by the Consumer Bankruptcy Project that two-thirds of the elderly directly attributed their bankruptcy to credit card interest and fees. Only 53% of the younger group blamed credit cards. The median credit card debt for the elderly was $27,213, while the median debt for the younger set was $15,499. 44.8% of the elder debtors carried at least five cards, while only 32.4% of the younger debtors had as many.

The study did not show that the elderly were more likely to spend without regard for the consequences. It showed that the elderly were less likely to have “problems controlling spending” than their younger counterparts.

An American Business Family Foundation study shows that more jobs could be lost – as many as 1.5 million – if the United States Congress allows the federal estate tax to return.

The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act caused the estate tax to expire at the end of 2009, according to New York Estate Lawyers. That same act will allow the return of the tax – at a rate of 55% for all assets over $1 million. The study says that if the estate tax returned at a 65% rate, more than 1.6 million jobs would be lost. If Congress merely allows the estate tax to return at the pre-Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act rate of 55%, between 1.4 million and 1.5 million jobs would be lost.

New York Estate Lawyers have found a number of national agricultural organizations, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the American Sheep Industry Association have tried to get U.S. Senate support to pass permanent estate tax relief legislation that will help preserve jobs.

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Life insurance has generally had fairly good treatment from tax laws over years, thanks to a reputation for protecting widows and orphans, a New York Estate Lawyer reports. It was the contention of the life insurance companies that their policies kept people from becoming poor when the family breadwinner died unexpectedly.

Gradually, however, the clientele of life insurance policies have become wealthier. Now the companies are selling their policies to wealthier Americans, often as a part of complex estate-tax plans. The clientele is changing, and so is the traditional role of life insurance. Congress is always looking for more revenue and it may turn to life insurance companies, citing their traditional offense of helping orphans and widows is no longer valid.

New York Estate Lawyers have found no current legislation or proposals before Congress to change tax law for life insurers. It is very likely that any such attempt would be opposed by insurance companies – and any increase in taxes in a bad economy will always face a stiff battle.

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The wife of one of the nation’s most prominent hedge fund owners, has taken over the hedge fund’s offices to give space to her own company – built for entertainment, not money management, sources tell a New York Estate Lawyer.

She’s known for her flamboyant ways, and the analysts at the hedge fund don’t even seem to notice anymore, even when she wears a low-cut leather dress in her husband’s (and her own) New York office.

“Eighteen years and no prenup means family office,” she told a New York Estate Lawyer.

New York Estate Lawyers have learned of a licensing deal between a Los Angeles company and the estate of Michael Jackson to create an online virtual world that will be known as “Planet Michael”.

The digital world will be part of the Entropia Universe, a massively multiplayer online game that currently has about 100,000 active users, run by a Swedish company.

The estate will work with the game publisher to get the game prepared for a late 2011 release, according to New York Estate Lawyers. It will allow fans to collect and trade virtual Jackson paraphernalia and earn credits by successfully passing challenges based on his music and dance moves.

It looks like the federal estate tax will be restored on January 1, 2011, and a lot of families are going to feel it, says a New York Estate Lawyer.

No one knows for sure, however, which is creating plenty of uncertainty when it comes to financial planning, especially for the retired, who may have to decide how much they can live on and how much they will have to give away as gifts to avoid being taxed.

The estate tax in 2009 allowed $3.5 million to be exempt, according to New York Estate Lawyers. The tax, should it return in 2011, will only allow a $1 million exemption, and rise from the old rate of 45 percent to a new rate of 55 percent.

New York Estate Lawyers have noticed something: Both financial planners and collectors do not tend to count the value of collections when it comes to looking at financial resources, including estate planning.

This often results in a parent instructing children to come and take the collection once the parent has passed on. If the collection is valuable and sold, the IRS is going to take note, which means the surviving children had better have some documentation that can prove they weren’t somehow circumventing tax law, a New York Estate Lawyer warns.

Should the collection be impossible to split equally between multiple children, that can be another problem. There is no way three people can split that classic car their father loved so much. Or they could not be especially interested in cars and decide to sell it and the rest of the collection – getting maybe 30 cents on the dollar for sale after taxes are paid.

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For the first time since such things have been surveyed, a new book includes studies that determine a majority of Americans view same-sex couples as family, according to a New York Estate Lawyer. This inclusion also extends to a gay or lesbian couple, even if they are unmarried. The new publication also concludes that more people are willing to view homosexuality as a natural and inborn trait and its conclusion is corroborated by the New York Times.

That is not the end of the story, whoever. New York Estate Lawyers also noticed that some coverage of the study by the Associated Press also included this item of data: “There’s a solid core resisting this trend who are more willing to include pets in their definition than same-sex partners.” This solid core is about 30 percent. The lead researcher for the Associated Press commented upon this statistic to a New York Estate Lawyer: “The sheer idea that gay couples are given less status than pets should give us pause.”

Family matters are changing with the times, which means the law is going to have to change, as well. You’ll need a New York Estate Attorney to keep up with those changes. All families accumulate money and possessions over a lifetime together, and these things have to be properly deposed of when someone passes on. A New York Estate Attorney can untangle all the difficult legal matters to make sure you and your loved ones can follow the wishes of your family member, as he or she would have wished.