Should I buy whole life insurance for estate planning purposes?

Probably not. This is a sales technique used by whole life salesmen to vaguely refer to some estate planning benefits of whole life insurance. While a whole life policy placed inside an irrevocable trust can help reduce the size of your estate (and associated estate taxes) and life insurance proceeds can help provide liquidity in the event you need some time to liquidate a farm or valuable business, the truth is that the vast majority of doctors will not owe estate taxes nor have a significant liquidity need at death. Current federal estate tax exemption limits are $11.4M ($22.8M married) and that figure is indexed to inflation. Most doctors simply don't make enough or save enough to have an estate tax problem. Most states don't have an estate tax, but a few not only have a tax, but have a much lower exemption limit than the federal limit. These include CT, DC, RI, NJ, IL, MN, MA, MN, NY, OR, VT, or WA.