Back in 2001, Congress enacted sweeping changes to the transfer tax system, including a host of technical corrections that are important to practitioners. As with all the other provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of...
Upon accepting a trust, a trustee may be given a non-binding letter of wishes by the settlor.1 Such statements are designed to offer trustees of discretionary trusts some guidance in the exercise of their discretion. (For a typical letter of...
If you have business-owner clients run do not walk to check that their pension plans are in order. And if they are not, quickly ask the Internal Revenue Service for forgiveness. The IRS is coming. The IRS is coming. And it'll be much better for...
Private foundations are usually organized as trusts or not-for-profit corporations. When choosing between the two, advisors tend to focus on ease of formation and maintenance, flexibility and standards for trustees or directors. They generally don...
Revenue Procedure 2005-241 published April 18, 2005 and effective as of March 30, 2005 is among the most controversial rulings promulgated by the Internal Revenue Service in recent memory. It has been roundly criticized by estate planners and...
It remains to be seen whether anybody was playing a cosmic joke when Hurricane Wilma was tearing South Florida apart at the same time that President Bush was appointing Ben S. Bernanke to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve...
Small business owners work hard. Even if they're smart and good at what they do, they'll still sweat away their youth before making it. It'll also take some luck to hit the jackpot selling their businesses while they're still young and healthy...
There is trouble brewing in independent broker/dealer-land. Operating costs are rising, recruiting efforts for advisors are starting to resemble an arms race and marginal reps will continue to be culled. In short, independent b/ds face the broad...
Eliot Spitzer may have fired the final cannon blast in his 27-month assault on the mutual fund industry. The crusading New York attorney general reached a settlement with Federated Investors last month that required the company to pay $100 million...
Kochis Fitz was once a small financial-planning shop that tried to win clients with $250,000 to invest. But the registered investment advisor has emerged as a leading financial-advisory practice in San Francisco, boasting $1.4 billion under...
