Are We Robbing Widows?

CR101 Radio - Podcast Network · Mar 11, 2026 · 3m

This piece highlights the harsh realities widows face under federal and state property and tax laws. A Missouri widow, unable to operate her late husband’s farm machinery during harvest because it was tied up in his estate, was forced to hire help at additional expense. Laws and regulations, including estate and inheritance taxes, often treat widows as secondary to bureaucratic process, ignoring the years of joint labor they contributed. Even careful legal planning can fail, as tax laws are frequently revised. The author argues that these policies amount to a form of robbing widows, and…