Farmers and ranchers who have not made arrangements for estate planning should run, not walk, to their tax advisors and determine if they should transfer assets to their heirs before year-end. Failure to do so could mean millions of dollars in estate taxes to those heirs, says Rob Gunther, Frost PLLC, Little Rock, Ark.

Gunther, addressing the third annual Beef Financial Management Conference in Amarillo, Texas, last week, said Dec. 31 is a key date for estate planning. A 2010 tax reform law that allows transferring up to $5 million from one generation to another without an estate tax expires at year-end.