AALU Reacts To S. 722

By Arthur D. Postal

March 26, 2009 at 08:00 PM

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Washington

An Association for Advanced Life Underwriting leader says AALU is watching a new tax bill that includes estate and gift tax provisions.

AALU, Falls Church, Va., has issued a statement from David Stertzer, the group's chief executive, discussing S. 722, which was introduced Thursday by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

The bill, the Taxpayer Certainty and Relief Act of 2009, would make the 2009 estate tax level permanent and reunify the estate and gift taxes.

"AALU has been the principal advocate for estate and gift tax reunification because it would greatly simplify estate planning and help clients by removing an artificial and harmful barrier that discourages earlier intergenerational transfers," Stertzer says in the AALU statement. "Such reform is vital to the vast majority of AALU members who help clients use life insurance trusts and a variety of other techniques to help individuals and families effectively pass on viable businesses and other assets from one generation to the next."

The introduction of the TCRA bill "represents significant progress toward AALU's goal of reasonable, sustainable estate tax reform that will enable clients to plan with certainty," Stertzer says.

But "there is considerable work to be done," Stertzer says.

A copy of the bill is available here.

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