Category: Estate Planning
There any many reasons why patriarchs and matriarchs often have great difficulty letting go of the power and ownership of the family business. These may include (as with Queen Elizabeth) a fierce sense of duty, intense popularity, deep familiarity with the business, a desire to complete the heroic mission, and, not uncommonly, an unconscious fear […]
A U.S. tax crackdown is coming for foreign retirement plans. While many retirees choose to spend their golden years close to home, others are opting to spend their retirement abroad in a foreign country. Unfortunately, a “foreign” retirement may attract troubling scrutiny from the IRS and the implementation of FATCA. According to a recent Bloomberg […]
Take steps to ensure that the money you inherit will last and help you meet your major financial objectives. Inheritance planning involves several tough decisions for the “giver” in the equation. Who shall get an inheritance? How much should be given? Lots of thought goes into this area of estate planning. But what about the […]
Every year, I used to get together with a client who was a business owner, and every year I would ask him, “Bruce, have you told your guys that you want them to buy the business?” He had a plan that he would eventually sell his contracting business to his senior executives, but he had […]
The law is clear on one thing: when a trust document does not address the issue, Ms. Klein said, “children born with the new technology are entitled to inherit with the same rights as a natural-born child.” Planning an inheritance? Just when you feel you’ve thought of all the family members you know and wish […]
If you’re thinking of relocating, compare the taxes in potential retirement states to those in your current state. Wherever you retire, you may be eligible for senior-related breaks on retirement income, property taxes and sales taxes. Where do you want to spend your golden years? Regardless of where you decide to retire, make sure you […]
The purpose of the panel meetings is to discuss and make recommendations regarding the acceptability of taxpayers’ appraisals of works-of-art. If the Panel recommends rejection of a taxpayer’s appraisal, it may also recommend a different valuation, the securing of additional information or consultation with a specialist. Beauty of art may be in the eye of […]
The new tool, developed by researchers from Italy’s University of Milan, could provide doctors with a more objective method that gauges the complexity of a patient’s consciousness. Advances in brain science keep us informed and help us better understand how the brain functions. And when it comes to making end-of-life plans, the more we know […]
Men and women who find themselves suddenly single in midlife need to plan carefully and make thoughtful decisions about such things as how to divide up assets and the best ways to handle the money they’ll receive. Divorce is messy. Period. This is especially true when your retirement or your estate are up for grabs. […]
Now the death-tax debate has shifted to state capitals, with mixed results depending on which party runs the state. Prior to 2001, states could impose an estate tax of up to 16% with no extra burden on their residents because a federal tax credit offset state estate taxes. That policy has ended and now state […]
