It’s been six months since the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) took effect, and many practitioners are still trying to figure out how to comply with the complexities of this new law. Some are keeping their fingers crossed that the whole issue will go away now that at least one court has held that the CTA is unconstitutional, and other challenges are underway. But for now, as stated in “The Corporate Transparency Act Six Months In,” p. 60, by Domingo P. Such III, Jamie A. Schafer and Gerard F. Joyce, Jr., we must “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” Their article, part of our Ultra-High-Net-Worth Families & Family Office Committee Report, details the various updates regarding the CTA and best practices to implement while we wait for the lawsuits to run their course.
Practitioners have other responsibilities when advising family offices on best practices. They must keep up with new perspectives, like the “Wealth 3.0” paradigm, which involves a collaboration approach with interrelated elements designed to move the field of family wealth advising forward with greater rigor, accountability, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. As detailed in “How to Be a Wealth 3.0 Attorney,” p. 66, by Kim Kamin and James Grubman, achieving this goal involves learning the ethical rules to follow when sharing information with other advisors. Their article also provides sample language to include in engagement letters with clients to address common family representation scenarios. Other articles in this Committee Report cover considerations when deciding whether to open a single family office and helping clients use a different approach to manage a polarity (that is, a set of seemingly opposed but actually interdependent values).
This month’s issue also includes articles on elder law and special needs, which cover the benefits of a letter of guidance and updates on recent case law. I’d also like to welcome Tara Ann Pleat, founding partner at Wilcenski & Pleat PLLC, to our editorial advisory board’s Elder Care/Special Needs Committee.