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...

A lot can happen in a few years. Back in 2005, Morgan Stanley was at risk of losing its wealth management business during a very public conflict between then-CEO Philip Purcell and its shareholders. Today, Morgan is on the verge of creating the...

RR: As a rep with AIG, how have you handled client concerns? MG: Since we're independent, our clients are comfortable that it's Meg Green & Associates they're doing business with; our brokerage firm is Royal Alliance Associates. We've never...

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...

Bernard Madoff’s astonishing fraud has accelerated calls for regulatory overhaul that had already begun with the credit crisis. then again, the regulatory system was antiquated. The real problem for retail financial advisors: Your clients no...

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...