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Other wild things available to people who don't need the help:

- 529 plan: tax-deferred education investment accounts that almost exclusively benefit people who have more than they need.

- HSAs: health savings accounts. If you can max them out, you're getting wicked awesome tax advantages that, again, aren't available to people who don't have the scratch.

- fractional ownership discounts: the value of 10% of a company that's worth $10MM isn't $1MM; it is probably closer to $70,000. Why? Discounts for lack of marketability and control. I don't want to own 10% of a warehouse that you own 90% of because I can't call the shots and it's pretty illiquid. This means that you can give away fractional ownership interests and use up less federal gift tax exemption than you'd otherwise need to.

- 1014 adjustments in basis. When you buy a capital asset, the money that you spend to buy the asset is your initial income tax basis. If I buy a building for $1MM and overnight it triples in value to $3MM, I still have my $1MM basis in the property. My basis can change if I make improvements to the property or if I depreciate out the basis over time, but for this example none of that is happening. So, if I sell the building I bought for $1MM for $3MM, I don't have $3MM because it would not be fair to tax me on the $1MM that I'm getting back: I already paid all the taxes I owe on that $1MM (or I'm in trouble). I will owe tax on the new $2MM that I never had before; the $2MM is Income to me that is taxable as capital gain. Sounds fair enough, right? But what if I hold the asset until my death? On my death, all assets I own get a new income tax basis equal to their fair market value on my date of death. So if I die when the building I bought for $1MM is worth $3MM, my representative or my heirs can sell the property for $3MM without realizing any capital gains. Instead of paying tax on $2MM of income, they pay tax on $0 of income. It's a colossal giveaway to the wealthy and a very good reason for old or sick people to cling to appreciated assets.