In This Issue

Reverse Mortgages and the Protection of Senior Borrowers
Reverse mortgages have been increasing in number since the inception of the federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage ("HECM") program twenty years ago in 1989. They have more recently been heavily advertised and otherwise pushed as a method to help seniors who have house equity, but not a lot of other savings. Estate planners will begin to see more and more of these mortgages in the estates of their clients as they continue to grow in popularity. While these mortgages do have benefits, there are also reasons to be cautious.

Recent Articles of Interest
Cowles Recent articles and blog entries on estate planning and small office topics are collected.

Legislative Update
Inflation-Adjusted Tax Items for Tax Year 2010; IRS Announces Pension Plan Limits for 2010; Most Limitations Remain Unchanged; Social Security Administration Announces Maximum Earnings Subject to SS Tax Unchanged for 2010; IRS Finalizes Rules on Amount Deductible for Claims against Estate; Applicable Federal Rates for November 2009; Applicable Federal Rates for December 2009.

Cowles Tech Tip
With the release of Cowles Trust Plus® version 19.1, Cowles now offers estate tax planning options for decoupled states. Recognizing that a growing number of jurisdictions have death taxes independent of the federal estate tax and that this trend is likely to continue, we have divided the tax planning options into state and federal planning, and have added three new state options, together with two previously existing options. This Cowles Tech Tip highlights how to use these new options.

THE ESTATE PLANNER AS A WORD DOCUMENT
Access The Estate Planner as a Microsoft Word document.