Living trusts do nothing for taxes - they do save attorney fees. We did have a living trust.. and I've set one up for myself.

We did have some life insurance, but nothing anywhere close to paying those taxes... something like $25,000... it would have cost as much for the life ins policy for Mom as it did to pay the taxes.. so we just paid the taxes..

These things need to be thought of ahead of time (many years ahead).. My dad was great in setting things up for my Mom to be taken care of, but there was no further estate tax planning for when they were both gone - he frankly didn't care if we got the money or not... By the time we started looking into stuff for Mom, it was cost-prohibitive for a lot of things... and my siblings didn't want to have things locked up in family trusts...

When I was considering starting my own business, my Dad told me he'd help me in any and all ways possible, but he wouldn't give me any money... My business is 20 years old now... He was a great advisor on business stuff - he owned a bunch of different types of businesses himself, quite the entrepreneur.

Canie