Our office did a lot of advanced estate planning late in the year. We helped clients give away tens of MILLIONS of dollars, without tax, through mediums such as family limited liability companies (FLPs), irrevocable trusts, and tenancy in common agreements.  Most experts thought the January 1, 2013 date would come with a lower gift and estate tax exemption. Maybe not the $1mil as the law was written but maybe something like $3mil or $3.5mil. However, yesterday Congress came up with a new law leaving the exemption at $5.12m, leaving portability in place and continuing the recent years of indexing the exemption. This is all good news for high net worth people. If you didn’t take action to do your estate plan, and you are high net worth, then NOW IS THE TIME! Take action now!  The law can change at any time. Most likely it will too! The government is likely, at some point, to nip at the corners. Getting rid of valuation discounts is one of the most likely places the government will attack in my opinion. Get it done while you can!  Oh ya, and happy new year!  -John