Legendary screen actor Paul Newman probably died a wealthy man. We can't know for sure just looking at his will. But we can see that the will was as smart and straight-forward as Newman's career. The will, a public document that does not state the...
The growing number of retirees, their increased life expectancies and the size of their savings led us to wonder: How much accumulated income-producing wealth is needed to maintain a desired lifestyle? In other words, given a target level of...
During the course of an estate's administration, a personal representative performs four basic functions: (1) marshals assets; (2) determines and raises cash needs; (3) pays reasonable funeral expenses, debts, administration expenses and taxes...
There's an important yet unspoken phenomenon in the world of estate tax: As the number of estate tax filings has been decreasing nationwide since 2001, there's been a corresponding increase in the Internal Revenue Service's audit coverage rate of...
Perhaps the first time most people would've heard of a green burial was in the last episode, aired during summer 2005, of the blockbuster HBO series, Six Feet Under. The featured family ran a conventional funeral business and, at the end of five...
Yes, it's true that the commercial real estate industry is suffering from increasing vacancies, decreasing rents and declining property values. Call it a trifecta of bad news. Yet, for bottom-feeders er, contrarians this might be a good time to...
Even though the value of your clients' homes isn't reflected in the assets you manage (and don't get any funny revenue-boosting ideas), these residences do represent a significant chunk of their net worths. And the sentimental value they attach to...
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...
