December 8, 2012

As I attended a Christmas play with my family last weekend (TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS @ the Kelsey Theater), I tried for a couple of hours to completely ‘unplug’ myself from the office and focus on being “there” with the family.

Sadly,  I found myself so preoccupied with the year-end planning we are doing in the office (for client’s seeking to tax advantage of the increased exemption this year), that visions of ‘esate-planning’ danced in my head throughout the show.  My mind must have somehow mixed the two concepts, because the idea for the below poem came to me.

(Don’t worry, I won’t give up my day job.)

T’was The Month Before ‘Cliff’-mas…

T’was the month before the New Year and all through the country,

all were in a good mood, except (that is), Trust Attorneys.

It seems like we will miss all the holiday cheer,

as our procrastinating clients finally plan out of fear.

It will be taxed at their deaths or when they give it away,

But much less for those who actually plan today.

The gifts on our minds will involve Gift Tax Exemptions,

instead of Barbie and Wii’s  and Sony Play-stations. 

Oh, how we wished we could drink, eat and relax,

and forget for a while about the Gift & Estate Tax.

The House passed a bill and so did the Senate,

but since the mid-summer, they’ve just sat on it.

As $1 Million may well be the new Exemption,

we are swamped with the tasks of trusts cre-a-tion,

So on New Year’s Eve, make my drink real stiff,

as I’ve tried to steer clients from their own fiscal cliff.