When clients are helping their kids adjust to the work that comes with the first few weeks of school, it's a great time to remind them that they have some homework of their own to do: tax preparation. Advisors often start discussing year-end tax...

I have not always been an advocate of corporate trustees. Quite the contrary. I used to give a standard speech when my clients were wondering whom to name as a trustee. You could appoint a corporate trustee, I'd tell them. But keep in mind that...

While modern corporations practice the art of risk management, this is not common among family enterprises, not even the most sophisticated. While wealth owners embrace formalized risk management, the focus of that endeavor tends to be on a single...

Many wealthy families are tempted to convert their single-family offices (SFOs) into a multi-family office (MFOs). The hope is that sharing their office services with other high-net-worth families will help defray costs and retain professional...

How does a blind man sign his will? One of the most famous blind men the singer, pianist and composer Ray Charles had his manager, Joe Adams, a longtime friend and the executor of his will, sign his signature for him in front of two subscribing...

Management's highest priority is profitability1 and profits depend mostly on pricing2, according to two recent studies of the multi-family office industry. Good pricing is principally a function of the internal costs of labor, capital, and...

Most estate planners know the three basic elements of a trust: a trustee, a corpus, and one or more beneficiaries. Many commentators regard the presence of a beneficiary as the most important element, because without a beneficiary there would be...

Over the last 20 years, investors have been increasingly demanding liquidity in nearly every aspect of their financial lives. Real estate investment trusts that trade daily, like stocks, have replaced limited partnerships as the preferred choice...

Practitioners argue about what the income tax consequences are if the seller in an IDIT transaction1 (Installment Sale to an Intentionally Defective Grantor Irrevocable Trust) dies before the note is paid off. Some commentators believe that this...

Buried within many of the boilerplate financial planning questionnaires used by advisors is an innocuous little line that says something like, Any expected inheritances? There's a reason the question is not featured more prominently. Taxes, health...