re: Inheritance tax

Inheritance taxes are only applicable in a handful of states. Did you mean the estate tax, which is a federal thing?

Federal estate taxes only kick-in if you have ~$12M+ per person, so if Married, its nearly $24M+ in assets. If you're below that number, don't sweat it. If you are above it, then its basically 40% on the estate above $24M [so a $30M estate would pay 40% taxes on $6M, yielding $27.6M to the heirs]. The estate pays it out prior to being distributed to the heirs.

The logic is for Uncle Sam to get a taste of large fortunes and to prevent all future generations from just collecting a huge sum of money.

If you are above the $24M, go talk to a lawyer/accountant about how to shield some of the assets from the tax man. Lots of options there that they can advise you on.

There are also gift taxes which basically prevent you from giving away your assets before you die and the taxman can collect it.