An unethical practice is widespread among charities with donor-advised fund (DAF) programs. Financial advisors1 benefit financially from promoting and facilitating the contribution of their clients' funds to charities. These deals, in which donors...

Health care costs are likely to be any retiree's greatest expense. Financial advisors, then, need to address the potential havoc health risks can have on a client's financial plan. The problem is: How to get clients to actually give personal...

Inheritance is the stuff of dreams for advisors and clients alike, but it often has nightmarish potential. There's one good reason for this: People have a hard time planning for their own deaths. Sure, most folks of any sort of means have a will...

The federal government helps your clients be philanthropists with tax incentives that greatly reduce the out-of-pocket cost of charitable gifts and in many cases enable donors to contribute much more than they originally imagined. To assure...

The next few years will see tremendous change in the world of philanthropic planning. Non-profit entities, as well as the financial and estate-planning communities that serve them, will have to work to adapt to a number of important trends: the...

From David T. Leibell and Daniel L. Daniels of Cummings & Lockwood, LLC, Stamford, Conn., we have this update: IRS approves disclaimer of residuary estate to private foundation. In Private Letter Ruling 200519042 (released May 13), the Service...

Why is it that so many secretaries and mid-level employees believe the estate tax should be permanently repealed? How is it that the gay and lesbian community favor repeal? Why did the congressional black caucus hold a press conference denouncing...

Private non-operating foundations in recent years have faced increasing governmental scrutiny of their compliance with the Internal Revenue Code1 and evolving prudent investor standards as well as inconsistent equity market returns and low returns...

Pundits are warning that when the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPA) goes into effect this fall (Oct. 17 for most provisions), its clauses on homestead exemptions, pensions and self-settled asset protection...