Starting any type of estate planning discussion with your aging parents can be a tough and awkward conversation. Some parents may misconstrue your intentions and believe you are mainly interested in preserving your own inheritance. Despite this almost as bad as the "birds and the bees" conversation, helping your parents understand the current complexities of the current estate tax can help him plan and decide where they want their estate funds to go after they pass.

This conversation is especially important this year, since the federal estate tax does not exist this year due to a legal oversight. However, next year the estate tax returns and if a family has more than $1 million in estate assets, those assets will be taxed unless congress takes action to change it. Many legal professionals warn that due to the complexities of tax rates and estate tax in general, if the wrong wording is contained in a will, a spouse or love one could be left with nothing or even worst left to the wrong individual(s).

Additionally, avoiding or ignoring the conversation can gave Uncle Sam more money of one's estate inadvertently.

Bring up the topic with your aging parents isn't easy but extremely necessary. In our next blog post, we will highlight 8 tips from estate planning experts, Alexandra Armstrong, a financial planner and Deborah Jacobs, author of Estate Planning Smarts, on how to address the estate tax and planning topic with your aging parents.

Source: U.S. News and World Report "How to Talk to Your Parents About the Estate Tax" 08/03/2010