The common client question of "Should I make gifts to my children?" is not as simple as it might seem. Tax issues are important considerations, but there are a whole list of pros and cons that normally need to be analyzed. In addition, the current climate of decreased client portfolio values, increasing deficits, and potential capital gains tax increases make the question of year-end gifting even more "interesting" this year.

Inflation-Adjusted Tax Items for Tax Year 2009; IRS Announces Adjustments to Pension Plan Limits for 2009; Statistics on Estate and Gift Taxes, Split-Interest Trusts, and Fiduciary Income Tax Published; IRS Identifies Certain Charitable Remainder Trust Transactions as Transactions of Interest; IRS Requests Public Comment on Tax Form Affecting Estate Planning Practitioners; Applicable Federal Rates for November 2008.

The Archive option in your Cowles software provides the ability to create a backup copy of a specific session, including all merge/trust information and phrase/document selections, allowing you to share sessions with others, move sessions between work and home computers, and backup sessions to a different location on a network for retrieval at a later date.