In its most basic terms estate planning is primarily to reduce taxes and facilitate the passing of your assets to your family in a responsible fashion.  There are certain levels where State and Federal taxes take a bite.  You need to be aware of these tax levels so you can plan to reduce these taxes to maximize the amount of assets passing to you family or organization of your choice.

The other aspects of estate planning are family specific, meaning, what are the children going to receive and whether a trust will be established and what age will the trust be disbursed.  What about step children and ex wives?  Is you ex wife still in you will.