Buy/sell agreements are security blankets for small business owners, but the pacts can breed a false sense of the warm and fuzzies, if not properly handled. The agreements, of course, spell out how a business will proceed financially when faced...

Collectibles such as art, antiques, jewelry, stamps, coins and automobiles can constitute a significant portion of the estate of a wealthy individual. Often and unfortunately advisors fail to focus adequate attention on planning for these...

Investments in 529 plans are not as popular as they could be and that's saying something because they are pretty popular right now. They are, in fact, the fastest growing product in financial planning, with the only real rival in terms of...

There is one thing that can be deadly medicine to the financial health of even well-prepared clients: long-term care. This year, the number of men and women over the age of 65 who will need long-term care will hit nine million, or about 3 percent...

In the world of trust and estates software, no package is all things to all users trying to perform a given task. So, when looking to buy software, focus on what works for you. To help with the process, I offer the Kelley Software Purchasing...

As T&E was going to press, the wealth management community was buzzing with reports that Republican and Democratic Senators were working on new estate tax reforms. Kristen French, reporter for T&E 's sister publication, Registered Rep...

Circular 230,1 the Internal Revenue Service's pronouncement regulating written tax advice, applies to all tax practitioners, including estate planners like me much as I might wish it affected only nefarious sellers of dubious tax shelters. Here is...

Stock in a closely held business can be the dominant asset of a married business owner. Therefore, if the owner gets divorced, the business is often the largest portion of the marital estate and the most vulnerable. Divorcing clients already have...

H. Amos Goodall, Jr., author of the May issue's The Death Tax Is a Good Thing, is dead wrong to oppose a permanent repeal of the estate tax. For the fourth time in as many years, the House of Representatives on April 13 did exactly the right thing...

David T. Leibell and Daniel L. Daniels of Cummings & Lockwood LLC in Stamford, Conn., have this report: Momentum is building to gut the Type III supporting organization. Supporting organizations in general and Type IIIs in particular were bashed...