Recent changes in the law have enhanced conservation easements' effectiveness in estate planning. But increased scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service heightens the need for careful documentation of agreements and for thoughtful valuations of...
I don't have to tell you private bankers how tough it is out there. You already know that your clients don't trust you, your organizations are in even greater chaos than usual, and the pressure to bring in new business has reached a whole new...
Even in the past few years, there's been a quantum leap in the ability of modern technology tools designed to improve work group efforts and data management to help all family office stakeholders communicate and collaborate more easily and...
There are an estimated 3,000 single-family offices (SFOs) based in the United States1 and, according to a recent survey by the Wheaton, Ill.-based association Family Wealth Alliance, the number one concern for many is sustainability: Will the...
You'd think that with interest rates at historic lows, assets highly undervalued and the prospect of a permanent estate tax, we estate planners would be deep in tax-planning sessions with clients
Transfers of art to a foreign trust qualify for estate and gift tax deductions. In Private Letter Ruling 200901023 (Sept. 29, 2008), the Internal Revenue Service held that a wife's lifetime and testamentary transfers to a foreign trust to manage...
Transfers of art to a foreign trust qualify for estate and gift tax deductions. In Private Letter Ruling 200901023 (Sept. 29, 2008), the Internal Revenue Service held that a wife's lifetime and testamentary transfers to a foreign trust to manage...
Your client spent a lifetime building his company and, now that he's ready to sell, the United States is in the middle of the worst recession in decades. What do you tell him? Of course, the first thing you say is: it might be a terrible time to...
Charities may not only have been Bernard Madoff's victims but also his enablers, most probably unknowingly but some, possibly, knowingly. Mitchell Zuckoff of Fortune magazine, in an article on CNNMoney.com dated Jan. 5, 2009, Charities: The...