Kodak. IBM. Coca-Cola. The names are corporate icons. And these blue-chip stocks, if held in the portfolio of any trust, once meant a life of quiet contentment for both trustees and beneficiaries. No more. There's been a rise in lawsuits by...

One of the most talked about cases among panelists at the Recent Developments-2005 session at this year's Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, held Jan. 9 through 13 in Miami, was Rudkin a case in which the Internal Revenue Service is trying...

Any trusts and estates attorney who has been in practice for more than a few years is likely to have dealt with an incapacitated trustee. A common problem is that of a superannuated trustee who is no longer capable of either administering a trust...

Penitence Pays Off for Putnam: The SEC filed charges against six former officers of Putnam Fiduciary Trust Company (PFTC) for helping to defraud a defined contribution client and a group of Putnam mutual funds of approximately $4 million. In the...

A Chicago financial advisor recently lamented to me: I feel like we're offering a complete array of wealth-management products and services, but we aren't as consistent in delivering those products and services as we should be. The advisor's...

Our interests may not always be the same as yours. Imagine telling your clients that. And then imagine saying 20 minutes later, But now that we're discussing your comprehensive planning needs, I'm acting in your best interests, because I've put on...

The mechanics of regulatory bodies only occasionally attracts the interests of rank-and-file advisors, like back in 1996 when the Nasdaq market was nailed for price fixing. It wasn't just investors that were paying too much for a trade: Small...

The brokerage industry will always loathe regulation. And it's safe to say brokers weren't raising pints of ale to the announcement in January that Mary Schapiro, head of NASD Regulatory Policy and Oversight, would be taking over for Robert...

What does an advisor do when clients at his firm are routinely charged an undisclosed commission on top of fees and he suffers for not falling in line? Q: I work for a major wirehouse. Like most others in our industry, we offer fee-based accounts...