[gnicholas]

The $11M only comes into play if you give more than the annual gift amount in a year. Unlike the annual gift amount (which applies to gifts from you to an unlimited number of individuals — assuming you're not using straw men to funnel money to a desired recipient), the lifetime exemption amount applies to all gifts you give to anyone. That is, you only get one $11M amount, whereas the $17k allows you to make gifts of that amount to any number of people each year.