The Rich Die Richer and You Can Too

Numbering among his clients Doris Duke and some Rockefeller and Chrysler heirs, New York City lawyer and estate-planner Zabel here explains tax-avoiding (not evading) measures available to the very rich in all the technical complexity of a modern democratic society's financial legalities-including certain confidential notions the IRS ``need not be troubled by.'' He deals plainly with common wills, trusts and annuities, and expertly with more sophisticated maneuvers like intrafamily gift deductions, ``defective grantor trusts'' and ``foreign asset protection'' in the Isle of Man-along with such devices as adopting one's mistress or companion. Interesting anecdotes abound: family havoc wrought by the intestate Abraham Lincoln and Pablo Picasso, and nuggets supporting the value of precise language from Shakespeare, Donne, Wilde, Shaw and more. Fans of Jackie O. will find a complete breakdown of her sensible estate plan. So if you expect to die rich... Author tour. (Mar.)