Wealth Planning

Charitable lids now should be at, or near the top of many wealthy families’ to-do lists in 2010—but only if there’s an estate tax this year

Out in the field, life insurance policies are generally not selected, designed or funded to most effectively support today's complex estate plans and premium-paying strategies. The mismatch between plans and strategies on the one hand and products...

The recent market crisis destroyed capital, challenged bedrock tenets of economics and revealed significant limitations in standard investment management practices. But for families of significant wealth, there is a silver lining. In the long run...

In 2009, asset protection specialists watched a major Internal Revenue Service drive to flush out secret foreign bank accounts while a financial crisis brought to light mammoth Ponzi schemes and took down publicly traded companies. But we saw few...

Perhaps one of the most noticeable developments I'm seeing in the last couple of years is clients and their advisors paying increasing attention to situs and jurisdiction selection in estate planning. Indeed, they're regularly considering...

The unsettled estate tax environment and harsh economic climate have created a new competitiveness: to be considered the jurisdiction for trusts and win the most trust business. Clients certainly are benefitting. If they select the right...

Perhaps the greatest development in the world of elder care and special needs law during 2009 was the lack of any real development. With the national debate raging over health insurance and health care reform, we're disappointed that only minimal...

Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness. Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, waiting to be fed. Waiting to be fed. Waiting to be fed. Here we sit, like birds in the wilderness, waiting to be fed. Anyone who has...

The way we gave in 2009 will be with us for a long time. Our country's economic crisis has occasioned a sea of change in the way individuals, foundations, corporations and the government respond to society's needs. That change will prove to be...