Chicago Tribune Bill Barnhart column.

By Bill Barnhart, Chicago Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Feb. 22--Somewhere down the list of priorities for President Bush's tax reform effort you'll find a tax most of us will never face.

But even for investors who take merely a spectator interest in the tribulations of the rich, the fate of the federal estate tax conveys useful insights.

It's the financial planning equivalent of reading Jane Austen novels. The complexities of life at the top mimic ours, with bigger dollar signs.

The tax cut bill enacted in 2001, in Bush's first year in office, is a microcosm of the mind-bending complexity Bush now claims he wants to …