In Jan. 1: A Good Day to Die (TaxProf, 1/1/10), Prof. Paul Caron writes, "With the estate tax repealed as of today, the economics literature suggests that we may see a surge of deaths (or, at least, reported deaths) among the wealthy elderly." He provides links to a couple of articles that provide evidence for this suggestion.
See also my earlier post, MSN Money: Is 2010 the best year to die?