To avoid being subject to the U.S. estate tax an expat has to live for more than ten years after expatriation or die in 2010--the year in which the U.S. estate tax disappears for one year.
The average American is 36 times more likely to die from heart disease than be murdered, six times more likely to die in an accident and four times more likely to die from Alzheimer's disease, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.