Clients who want to create special needs trusts for their family members with disabilities1 often are forced to choose between, on the one hand, favorable tax treatment, and on the other, both better management of the funds and preservation of...
From David A. Handler of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, we have this update: Basis of Real Estate Acquired from Exercise of Option Stepped-Up. The will of a taxpayer's mother provided the taxpayer with an option to purchase the mother's house for a stated...
Since the early 1990s, use of the investment family limited partnership (FLP)1 as a sophisticated estate-tax reduction technique has grown. Almost universally, the Internal Revenue Service asserts in these situations that a valuation discount...
The federal government got into an area previously reserved for the states spousal property rights with the enactment of the Retirement Equity Act of 1984 (REA).1 This statute requires all qualified retirement plans provide the spouses of plan...
Nary a day passes without some brokerage firm or another announcing an initiative aimed at attracting wealthy, or very wealthy, customers. With their new private wealth management groups, more sophisticated money management offerings, alternative...
In the wake of numerous Wall Street scandals and the move by wirehouses toward more comprehensive financial planning initiatives (ones that many independents have been hawking for years), independent broker/dealers seem to be gaining more traction...
So, you've got the itch the itch to go out on your own. You're sick of big-company politics, rock-bottom bonuses, demoralizing scandals and miniscule payouts. You've been watching a steady stream of colleagues set up their own shop, and now, it's...
We've all seen the ads. Broker/dealers promising massive payouts in large, bold-print type: 90 percent! 95 percent! Even 100 percent! It's understandable if advisors especially those fleeing wirehouses over pay issues are dazzled by the numbers...
Like a doctor, a financial advisor's first responsibility is to do no harm. But, as in the medical profession, external forces often rear up to challenge a financial professional's commitment to that oath. For advisors, one such force is now...
The Securities Industry Association is projecting 2003 as one of the most profitable years ever for Wall Street although revenues are off steeply from last year. For those of you able to do the math, the profit news is bittersweet because it means...
