The State Estate Tax

Though there is a (relatively) new and generous federal estate tax exemption of $5 million per estate and $10 million per couple, many families still have to plan for estate taxes even if under the exemption amount.  The reason? - Individual state estate taxes:

Because of these individual state estate taxes, use of trusts and other methods to deal with moderately large estate estates is still very much advisable.

To view the varying requirements of these states check out this map and accompanying article provided by forbes.com: Forbes - State by State Estate Tax Map