When we recommend ways for our clients to reduce their estates, we're mindful that clients generally want a comfortable cushion for retirement. But, providing this comfortable cushion is often inconsistent with reducing their estates enough to...
Preferred partnerships (PPs) are very useful and versatile estate planning vehicles that have been around for decades, yet still appear to fly under the radar. From an economic perspective, a PP is often well-suited to act as a multi-generational...
An astonishing 93 percent of family business owners depend on the family business as their primary source of income, according to the 2007 Laird Norton Tyee Family Business Survey.1 This statistic has far ranging ramifications on the success or...
The Dec. 17, 2010 enactment of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (2010 Tax Act) added the concept of portability and dramatically increased the gift tax exemption to $5 million per individual ($10...
Among other perplexing issues facing clients these days is what to do with life insurance policies that are calling out for attention, sometimes very loudly. Clients might be hearing that they need to increase their premiums to support the death...
Taxes are a contentious political issue. Elections for positions from county supervisor to the United States president have been won or lost on promises about and voting records on taxes. Now, with the passage of the Tax Relief, Unemployment and...
Much of the wealth being transferred in the United States today is in the form of highly appreciated illiquid assets: family businesses, closely held stock, real estate and interests in limited liability companies (LLCs) and limited partnerships ...
