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Unfortunately, with health care reform dominating much of the 2009 legislative agenda, Congress could manage little more than light banter regarding the final stages of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA). As the ball dropped to close out 2009, the estate tax was repealed ... at least for the time being. Estate planning attorneys, clients, and their advisors are now left to examine three questions previously thought to be moot, given the anticipation of pre- 2010 estate tax reform: (1) Where are we now (what rules govern 2010)? (2) Where might we go from here (what directions may the estate tax system take as we draw near, and enter, 2011)? and (3) How does this picture affect existing estate tax planning arrangements?

Who Would Have Thunk It?! At the end of the first quarter of last year, with U.S. large cap equities, as measured by the S&P 500 index, down 11.7% following the horrendous collapse of 2008 – who would have thought that the markets (U.S., International, Commercial Real Estate, and Commodities) would have ended 2009 with a rally of historic proportions? We didn’t predict it...but as you know, we are not in the business of predicting or speculating. Investors with a long-term strategy and an eye on the history of market cycles could have predicted that such a rally would happen – just not the timing of the rally.

The last fourteen months have been very interesting and exciting, with new challenges leading to personal growth and development that have enriched my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined.