Wall Street Journal, Repeal of Estate Tax Creates Planning Dilemmas, by Martin Vaughan:

Spouses of those wealthy who die next year might find themselves with nothing if the wills aren't revised, another wrinkle of the impending repeal of the federal estate tax Friday.

Starting Jan. 1, estate taxes will be repealed for 2010 only. That means unless Congress acts otherwise, there is no limit to the wealth that can be passed on to heirs without incurring estate taxes through the end of that year.

Often, wills have been written with an expectation the estate tax structure that has been in place for years would continue, estate planners say. The wills typically direct that assets that aren't subject to estate tax be passed on to children — for 2009, up to $3.5 million — and that the rest go to the spouse.

"You could be in a situation now where everything would go into a trust downstream to the kids and nothing is left to the spouse," said Greg Rosica, a tax partner at Ernst and Young. "There is a need to revisit the basic estate planning documents to make sure that what you intend to have happen really does happen."