The New Year’s Day fiscal cliff bill, which ended an 11-year period of uncertainty about estate tax exemptions and rates, also made permanent a wonderful break for widows and widowers that was set to expire after a two-year introductory period. Starting for deaths in 2011, and now going forward, widows and widowers can add any unused exclusion of the spouse who died most recently to their own $5.12 million tax-free amount. This enables them together to transfer up to $10.24 million tax-free. It also eliminates the need in many cases for the tax-planning gyrations that lawyers routinely recommended to preserve each spouse’s estate tax exemption amount.