Clients are often more global than their U.S. advisors. But we can change that. Here are some key trends in trusts and estates internationally: Trusts are gaining ground; family business succession advice is in high demand; family offices are...
The evil eye of Congress, much like the eye in The Lord of the Rings, is focusing on Middle Earth and Middle Earth is us. Rumors abound about the details of massive new tax legislation. We will see the much-awaited new law probably in October of...
The economic crisis is hitting the family offices of America's wealthy. Expect closings of both single family offices (SFOs) and multi-family offices (MFOs). Those that were just hanging on before the economic crisis won't survive. Even the well...
Elder law experienced no cataclysms in 2008. But significant trends emerged and public benefits planning continued to mature. First, the good news: Medicaid asset protection is being extended, state by state, to same sex couples. Also, all states...
Steven J. Best, chief executive officer of Best Law Firm Solutions, has wisely observed that the recent economic hardships only increase the need to have electronic capabilities enhance efficiency. Best advised: Take heart that a sluggish economy...
Back in the summer,1 I warned that the financial markets were headed for serious problems. But even my worst fears pale in comparison to what actually happened: nothing less than a near-death experience for western finance. The markets survived...
Today's investment and political climate is causing a perceptible change in the way many clients approach the role of life insurance in their financial and estate planning. I see clients aggressively reassessing their life insurance needs, whether...
A recent Internal Revenue Service Chief Counsel Memorandum concluded that a trust could not claim a charitable income tax deduction after it had received taxable IRA distributions (that is, income in respect of a decedent or IRD)1 and then...
Wow! During 2008 we witnessed $4 a gallon gasoline, a mortgage industry meltdown, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fall from approximately 13,000 to 8,000, and the election of a new president; an African American, no less. And amidst all of these...
At David A. Handler's request, a New York-based team of the Wealth Management Group at Bernstein Global Wealth Management did an analysis of the economic benefits of financed gifts as compared to a sale to grantor trust. Here's the report: To...
