Business valuation analysts have been frustrated for years trying to arrive at a reasonable, plausible, defensible and supportable discount for lack of marketability (DLOM). After spending hours studying and adjusting financials, analyzing market...

Perhaps nothing in business valuation is more controversial than the discount for lack of marketability (DLOM).1 This one adjustment can have a sizable impact on clients' tax obligations. So, naturally, one question frequently lingers in attorneys...

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

Michael Crichton left behind the makings of another kind of movie when he died on Nov. 4, 2008 at age 66

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...