Edward Jones—a firm that hasn’t attracted much regulatory scrutiny over the years—has been under considerable fire of late, thanks mainly to previously undisclosed revenue-sharing arrangements. The company has been loath to make...
If you're like me, you don't read the instructions when assembling a barbecue grill. You may, however, wish to take a look at the Internal Revenue Service's instructions for Form 5227, dealing with split interest trust reporting for the year 2003...
A recent study heralds a rise in Asian-American investors with at least half a million in assets. But that doesn't necessarily spell opportunity for advisors. Such Asian-American investors are now 5 percent of the affluent market an increase of...
As an advisor to private foundations, I have seen them run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service time and again. Many of the missteps are inadvertent, but the penalties are no less severe. At the extreme, violations can lead to foundations losing...
Total return legislation, now law in 40 states, freed trustees of income-only trusts to make investment decisions without being captive to immediate cash flow needs. But serious tax concerns prevented trustees from taking advantage of this...
Most people don't think of the trust industry as being part of a modern-day gold rush. But it must be. Why else would virtually every type of financial institution from independent trust companies and banks to brokerage houses put such huge...
As the economy is supposedly ramping up, so is continuing education for wealth management. Three new programs are on the horizon one from the American Bankers Association, another from New York University and a third from the Institute for Private...
As with split dollar, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have proven they understand what is going on in the life insurance marketplace and when they see something abusive know how to stop it. On Feb. 13, the Treasury...
