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Individuals and families that manage their wealth wisely tend to take an active role in doing so. Rather than leave everything in the hands of an advisory team, they make sure they’re knowledgeable about the key factors affecting their wealth. This entails understanding various legal, financial, and regulatory issues, as well as the economic and political landscape, both home and abroad. This can be a tall order—one that this 2017 guide to tax and wealth management aims to help you meet.

Finding your voice as an adult is a difficult process for everyone, but can be especially challenging when you grow up in a family of wealth. Perhaps you already control some or all of your inheritance or maybe you soon will. Learning the rules of the road can make you more comfortable, confident, and independent as you choose your destination, plan your route, and safeguard yourself and your passengers.

The past 20 years’ exceptional wealth creation will soon be followed by the biggest-ever wealth transfer. It is estimated that fewer than 500 people will hand over USD 2.1 trillion to their heirs over the next 20 years. For most Asian economies, where over 85 percent of billionaires are first generation, this will be the first-ever handover of billionaire wealth. Billionaires matter. They create and hold immense wealth. Shifts in the structure of that wealth matters to the wealthy and their families. But they also impact the global economy and society as a whole.

Under their tag as Baby Boomers, the Pre-Retirees have always been different. In the insurance sphere, that difference shows itself as a change in perspective that entails new requirements. Whether to downsize and how, what legacy to leave, and similar questions that call for more than advantageous sales. To provide the added-value advice and service they need, financial advisors must look at their Pre-Retiree clients’ lives holistically in collaboration with risk and insurance advisors.

If you pre-order from Starbucks, buy a paper on the corner using Apple Pay, or use the free wifi at the gym to pay your bills online, before lunch you’ve shared multiple pieces of information that could potentially be accessed by cyber criminals. Security experts continue to familiarize themselves with the latest cyber-exposures, but so do criminals.

Imagine trying to protect a multi-generational family with 15 households and 25 properties in multiple states—not to mention all their vehicles, collections and personal property. Then there’s liability exposure for dozens of individuals, each with their own unique set of risks. Providing insurance protection for this level of exposure is challenging and requires specialized expertise on many levels. This paper highlights the complex risks faced by multi-generational families and how proper risk management can successfully protect their wealth for future generations.

From a tax perspective, 2016 was a relatively calm year. But this relative calm shouldn't create complacency. Instead, it creates two significant opportunities for year-end planning. First, you can redirect the time and energy spent understanding new laws in years past toward a holistic look at your tax situation and plans for the future; you might just identify tax-saving strategies that were previously unnoticed. Second, you can devote that extra time to learning more about the new rules that did go into effect this year.

The new revenue recognition standard—set to go into effect in 2018 for public entities and 2019 for nonpublic entities—has been and continues to be a hot topic during our conversations with clients. Unlike most other accounting changes, the new standard will influence organizations not just at the financial-statement level, but also at the operational level. Although the deadline for implementation is a year or two away, organizations have already reached a fork in the road: they must decide whether to engage in proactive planning now, or face risky consequences later.

Lifetime gift planning can include gift to spouse, annual exclusion gift, UTMA accounts, 2503(c) Trust, funded Crummey trust, 529 plans, payment of tuition and medical expenses, gift to irrevocable life insurance trust, and gifts to qualified personal residence trust (QPRT). When it comes to the basic estate and gift planning, it helps to have an at-a-glance view of the types of gifts available and their benefits, tax consequences, restrictions and limitations, and requirements.

Gross domestic product per capita, a proxy for living standards, has slowed dramatically over the last 15 years. For equity investors, slower economic growth translates into reduced opportunity for revenue growth and increased risk for transitory shocks and market volatility. The biggest risk to the economy is that political leaders will respond to subpar growth in living standards by implementing anti-growth policies, including protectionist measures, higher taxes, restrictions on immigration and tighter government regulation of industry, which would likely slow growth even further.