| True | False | |
| 1. The unlimited marital deduction postpones the payment of federal estate taxes. | [__] | [__] |
| 2. A married couple can give any individual up to $28,000 in gifts tax-free in 2016. | [__] | [__] |
| 3. Federal estate taxes must be paid in cash, generally within nine months of death. | [__] | [__] |
| 4. Federal estate tax rates are progressive, meaning that they increase with the size of the estate. | [__] | [__] |
| 5. Your estate may have to pay state inheritance taxes. | [__] | [__] |
| 6. If you die without a will, state intestacy laws will determine who inherits your property. | [__] | [__] |
| 7. The federal estate tax is payable only if your taxable estate exceeds the unified credit equivalent, which is $5,450,000 in 2016. | [__] | [__] |
| 8. The marital deduction does not apply to property you bequest to someone other than your spouse. | [__] | [__] |
| 9. An estate can be taxed at a rate as high as 40%. | [__] | [__] |
| 10. Various estate planning techniques and tools can be used to reduce estate taxes. | [__] | [__] |
All of these statements are true.
If you answered seven or more correctly, you have a good foundation of knowledge upon which to build your estate plan. Regardless of how many you answered correctly, the time to begin planning your estate is today, before it is too late to make important decisions about the accumulation, preservation and distribution of your assets.
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