Well, it is official: the IRS has announced the Estate Tax Exemption and the annual gift exclusion for 2015.  See the details here in this article in the Wall Street Journal by Laura Saunders:

http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/10/30/estate-tax-exemption-for-2015-announced-by-irs

As the article says, with the estate exclusion so high most people will not need to file estate tax returns when they pass away, tax planning in this area has moved away from minimizing the estate (except in large asset situations) and more toward capital gain tax and state income and estate tax savings (when applicable).   It is quite a change from 15 years ago, when the exemption was under 1 million dollars and a lot of homeowners might have owed estate taxes.

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