Interesting article in the Weekend Wall Street Journal:  Estate-Tax Plans Get Trickier, by Tara Siegel Bernard:

Despite a full-throttle effort, Congress has so far failed to kill the estate tax — or even enact a compromise that would permanently reduce the hit. Though there’s still time for a compromise deal, the tax is currently scheduled to disappear in 2010 and then bounce back again, at higher rates, in 2011. That’s making it trickier than ever to formulate an estate-tax plan, which often includes buying a life-insurance policy. Such a policy often plays a central role in estate planning, whether it is used to pay off a big estate-tax bill after you die or to leave something to a child who didn’t get a piece of the family business. Choosing the right policy is especially complicated, notably for families with more modest estates that may escape taxation depending on what Congress does. Another twist: Many states have begun imposing their own estate tax, making matters even more complicated.