It’s been almost a year since my last article on the subject of estate planning and Congress’ extension of the federal lifetime exemption of $5 million dollars per person. This lifetime exemption is set to expire on December 31, 2012 and revert back to $1 million dollars per person. This is a ticking time bomb for most farm estates in this country, as a $1 million dollar gift exemption really doesn’t go very far in succession planning. In these ever-increasing turbulent times for producers, futures markets drive us crazy and the media continues its barrage on commodities and crops, whether they are growing or not, which tends to sway markets (at least in my mind) in the wrong direction, making any long-term planning decisions on your operations next to impossible. But estate and succession planning, both long term and short term, are both beneficial and possible with the right team in place.