As The U.S. Congress turns its attention away from health care to how to finance the changes, one place they will look will be the soon to sunset estate tax code. The estate tax is set to cease in 2010; however, most pundits who follow such matters closely speculate the Democrat-controlled House and Senate will reinstate the estate tax provisions to the Tax Code. A likely scenario seems to be an exemption for estates up to three and half million dollars. Should that be the case many people looking at planning their estate may not have estate tax consequences to worry about.

     However, planning for the disposition and transfer of property will still be important. A very good vehicle to avoid probate and effectively transfer assets upon death is the revocable trust. Revocable trusts have advantages over a last will and testament, chief among them is the cost savings of not having to conduct a probate of the estate. This aspect of the revocable trust also increases privacy for the heirs and decreases the time they have to spend dealing with the transference of the assets. Thus, the burden on the beneficiaries is lessened significantly. The creator of the trust can retain control over the trust property during his lifetime by serving as trustee. The revocable trust is a device that smoothes the transition of ownership of assets from one generation to the other.