Often, estate planners and elder law attorneys are faced with the challenge of trying to protect an aging client who's gradually descending into dementia or becoming emotionally needy, making him vulnerable to unscrupulous caregivers, friends...
Grantor's power to substitute property may not require inclusion of the property in the grantor's gross estate. There has long been concern that a grantor's power to substitute property of a trust, which may be used to render the trust a grantor...
It can be a thorny issue, whether to compensate the directors of a family foundation1 who are family members and, if so, how much to pay them. Certainly, it's legal to compensate such directors to the extent that payment of such compensation, as...
For the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court has asserted that it not only believes in the taxpayer rights enunciated more than 70 years ago by Judge Learned Hand but also that the court embraces this position even more firmly than the eminent judge...
Little did I dream, when I started practicing 30 years ago in a small office in Fort Collins, Colo., that I would have the opportunity to work with hundreds of philanthropists in fulfilling their visions of how they want to change the world. Along...
Estate planners can learn from financial planners. For years, financial planners have used hedging techniques to reduce risk or to guarantee a desired outcome. This is done by entering into a transaction that moves in the opposite direction as the...
Sometimes even the best relationships go sour. But getting out of a private foundation doesn't need to be fraught with confusion about an uncertain future. By following a straightforward, step-by-step process, you can extricate your clients from a...
About six years ago, I started talking differently to prospective private foundation clients. I used to try to craft a cohesive answer to the most common question I got from financial advisors, accountants and attorneys: How much should the client...
WHEN YOUR FIRM BEGINS TO GROW, YOU HAVE TO HIRE MORE STAFF BUT THAT'S NOT ENOUGH. YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP SOLID PROCESSES TO HELP THEM WORK EFFICIENTLY AND EFFECTIVELY. Systems: John Vance knew he needed them and immediately. Three years ago, Vance, a...
California sure lives up to its name as the Golden State: It hogs the list of U.S. counties with the most millionaire households, taking four of the top 10 slots, according to market research house TNS. Topping that list of counties is L.A. County...
