On Dec. 17, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the Act). The Act significantly impacts the estate planning that advisors will recommend to their clients, as...

For those of us in the business of providing client services, success is heavily dependent on our ability to offer the most comprehensive, cutting-edge information available. No matter how good we may be individually, we can always be better by...

One of the most challenging conversations for a financial advisor to have is getting a married couple to agree on a financial plan. Husband and wife may have very different views on risk, as well as spending and saving priorities.

On Dec. 17, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the Act). Among other things, the Act makes changes in the tax law for calendar years 2011 and 2012 that: (1)...

The bypass trust, also known as the credit shelter trust, the family trust and the trust, has been the foundation of estate planning for married couples since before I started practicing law. Prior to 2011, such a trust was necessary to ensure...

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010,1 among other things, ended the nail-biting uncertainty about the estate tax thresholds for 2011. (For more information, see New Rates, New Exemptions, New...

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PWC) has released its second global family business survey in November 2010, Kin in the Game, available online at www.pwc.com. In 2007, when PWC completed its first survey, there were few signs of the financial crisis...

Waiting for Godot is a classic play in which the protagonists await the arrival of a mysterious problem solver who never arrives. For estate planners and valuation professionals, 2010 was similarly a time for waiting — for tax law resolutions, for...

“We’ll probably see, especially now, clients less interested in investments and more interested in managing cash.So [software] solutions that do more than just spit out an investment [idea], but also a debt management and emergency...