Since the law is unsettled about what happens if a grantor dies with a promissory note outstanding, Doyle said, he advises clients to pay off the note before they die.
Note: If you die within three years of making a taxable gift, the original value of the gift and the gift tax get added back to your estate and the gift tax paid is credited toward your estate's tax bill.
In their best seller Freakonomics, he and co-author Stephen Dubner note that a child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident than a gun accident.