The shock of actor Heath Ledger's untimely death has passed, but questions still linger. Although only 28 when he died, Ledger had a will. Yet the multi-millionaire left his only child with a mere $145,000. The baffling part is: Why would someone...
To stop individuals who are on the verge of filing for bankruptcy from moving their wealth to states with laws that might better help them keep their assets, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (the 2005 Bankruptcy...
The engagement letter is here to stay and constitutes best practice for both lawyers and clients in estate planning. But it wasn't always so. Indeed, the use of engagement letters is a relatively new phenomenon. For generations, a simple...
A series of private letter rulings over the past several years seemed to indicate that a gift to a predeceased spouse would qualify for the gift tax marital deduction and enable use of that spouse's estate tax applicable exclusion amount. In...
A combination of tax-free gifts to grantor trusts and grantor-retained annuity trusts (GRATs) can be a powerful way to transfer wealth. Sophisticated quantitative modeling and capital markets forecasting demonstrate that even a client with a very...
Want to know what clients really want? It's more financial education for themselves and all their family members. This past June, wealth owners from four countries gathered at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, paying close...
Asset protection grows ever more popular and permanent. After spending over six years in prison for civil contempt, Stephen Jay Lawrence is a free man once again. In the statement releasing Lawrence from prison, Judge Alan Gold for the U.S...
We all know what a lousy third-quarter Merrill Lynch had it reported the worst loss in its 93-year history (a $2.3 billion net loss along with a staggering $8.4 billion in bond write-downs). As a result, CEO Stan O'Neal was forced into retirement...
