Uncertainty about estate taxation after 2010 reason for client outreach. Advisors who aren't gearing up for discussions this fall with clients about impending changes to U.S. federal law that could have a significant effect on financial planning might want to do so. From Roth IRA conversions to the federal estate tax, those who want to live comfortably in retirement, keep family businesses going in the next generation and leave money to charities and heirs have a lot to consider. "What happens in the next few months could cause some of the biggest changes we've seen in the trusts and estates field," says Roy Adams, an emritus professor professor of estate planning and taxation at Northwestern University's School of Law, who will be explaining recent and upcoming changes to the financial-planning landscape at a presentation for estate-planning professionals at the Minneapolis Convention Center on 14 September 2009. Throw mama from the train The biggest changes in store relate to estate taxation. After a period of incremental increases in federal estate-tax exemption rates in the years 2001 through 2009 (from $675,000 to $3.5 million) it's scheduled to disappear altogether in 2010, but just for the one year. Then the exemption rate is slated to revert to 2001 levels. Many think Congress will act to keep that from happening, but a new estate-tax regime reflecting exemptions of the last few years is likelier than the permanent repeal many confidently predicted a few years back. So well-to-do Americans need to understand what's coming and how it could effect their businesses and charitable and familial legacies. In addition, income limitations on converting regular IRAs, 401(k) accounts, and 403(b) accounts to Roth IRAs vanish in 2010, opening the field to wealthy individuals. It's likely that many of them will take the leap. Adams' co-presenter at next month's talk -- part of the seventeenth annual "Estate and Charitable Gift Planning Institute in the Twin Cities" conference -- is Christopher Hoyt, a professor of federal income taxation and business operations at the University of Missouri (Kansas) School of Law. The presentation and its live broadcast is co-sponsored by Securian Trust -- a St. Paul, Minn.-based insurance and retirement-product provider -- and, of all things, the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is involved with the presentation in the name of "creatively working to increase our audience and hopefully increase giving," says Annette Bauer, community relations director for the Salvation Army's northern U.S. division. "In a time when charities need to stand out to get recognized, the Salvation Army is working daily to increase our appeal to givers." -FWR

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