Wealth Planning

Asset protection grows ever more popular and permanent. After spending over six years in prison for civil contempt, Stephen Jay Lawrence is a free man once again. In the statement releasing Lawrence from prison, Judge Alan Gold for the U.S...

In Private Letter Ruling 200747001, issued Nov. 23, 2007, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that an inter vivos charitable lead annuity trust (CLAT) qualified as a grantor trust for income tax purposes. The ruling is both important and curious...

Last year ushered in a new titleholder for the wealthiest man on earth: Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim took that honor, knocking Bill Gates and Warren Buffett into second and third place. And the two American icons of wealth could fall further...

With so much buzz about the RIA world's rapid growth in assets and number of advisors, news about the other independent channel seems to be slipping through the cracks. Just a few years ago, it was the independent broker/dealer firms that were...

Since the first exchange-traded bond fund appeared in 2002, financial rocket scientists have struggled to launch a tax-free ETF. The development efforts finally bore fruit in September, when Barclays Global Investors launched its iShares S&P...

Sooner or later, you're going to get a call from a valued client that may put you in an uncomfortable situation. He will tell you that the Society for Preservation of Historically Significant Manhole Covers (an organization of which he is...

Hunter McFarlin knew something was wrong. He quit his job selling life insurance at a small bank in Murfreesboro, Tenn., to start his own advisory practice back in 2004. At the time, McFarlin figured it would take a while before he made a profit...

A generation ago, retiring clients usually had most of their money locked up in certificates of deposit at the local bank. Simplicity, predictability, and the double-digit yields of the time provided a nice compliment to Social Security or pension...