According to a recent survey conducted on behalf of American Express, 57 percent of twenty-somethings are still relying on their parents for financial support...
Whenever a client comes to us after the death of a loved one, particularly in the case of a surviving spouse, he's typically quite overwhelmed. Generally, we find that our clients fall into two categories those who don't know where to begin with...
The challenges of dealing with the choice of tax regimes for 2010 decedents can approach you from many fronts. The tax consequences of the different regimes, the interpretation of formula clauses and the changes in funding due to the imposition of...
Since the financial crisis of 2008, global markets have been surprisingly resilient. Investors who continued to follow disciplined strategies have recovered much of their losses, if not their confidence. Professional advisors have all worked hard...
Our company, Fiduciary Trust Company International, was appointed executor of an estate of a client who died in 2010. Our client's wife had died in 2005. The value of the estate was approximately $50 million, consisting of a marital trust created...
In March 2009, Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty to federal charges involving a Ponzi scheme. In a Ponzi scheme, money contributed by new investors is used to make payments to existing investors. At some point, the perpetrator can't bring in enough...
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (2010 Tax Act) brought about an increase in the gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemptions to $5 million each.1 Many clients are...
A recent headline in The Chronicle of Philanthropy tells the story: Recession's Hard Lessons Lead to Changes in Endowment Policies: The bulls may be back in control on Wall Street, but the painful lessons that endowment managers endured just a...
Despite Congress’ eleventh-hour move in December to head off sharply higher estate taxes, confusion remains over the future of the levies. The tax revisions lawmakers made at the end of last year set a maximum rate of 35 percent with a $5...
