I think we are speaking past each other. Of course life insurance is out of your estate if you don’t own it. I never questioned that.

Specifically Chantrill wrote that,” . . . when you die, your life insurance payout doesn’t count as part of your estate.” My point was that he implied that life insurance is exempt from estate tax because it is life insurance. As you know, this implication is incorrect. He should have written that “your life insurance doesn’t count as part of your estate if you don’t own it.”

You can speak all you want about what is “taken for granted,” or what is “expected,” but life insurance isn’t immune from federal estate tax because it is life insurance.

This is an inaccurate statement; life insurance is exempt from INCOME tax and many states’ INHERITANCE tax but NOT from federal estate tax.

ie… social engineering…

http://tinyurl.com/3uty97u

“Obama’s aides say he understood liberal anger over the Republicans’ irresponsibility in using the default threat to strengthen their own bargaining position. But while progressives wanted the White House to call the right wing’s bluff, Obama insisted that this was not a risk a president could take. He preferred to escape this box with the best flawed deal he could get, provided he could take the lethal debt-ceiling weapon out of Republican hands.”

We gave in and it’s spun as seen above. Munich all over again. Michelle Bachman is winning because she did not compromise. Libertarians and moderates, this is not your time. You only have a time when the conservatives give it to you.

It’s a tough sell though. It requires personal responsibility.