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The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 reduced the top marginal estate and gift tax rate to 40 percent. In addition, the Act provides for a $5,000,000 per individual lifetime estate/gift tax exemption, adjusted for inflation, known as the “basic exclusion amount”. The 2015 basic exclusion amount is $5,430,000. This article explains changes to the current estate and gift tax law and provides insight into various tax strategies.

Families who have created wealth over time through real estate development and ownership have even greater opportunities, but very different challenges, when their focus shifts to preserving that wealth. In many instances, using appropriately trained professionals to guide in the process and electing to create a single family office, or retaining the services of a specialized multiple family office organization, will enable a family to maintain its legacy as new generations emerge.This useful article discusses whether wealth owners should consider opening a family office.

Thinking about selling your business? Conventional wisdom in the investment banking community says you’d better do it soon — that the market will soften sooner rather than later. Corporate Finance experts have a different view — that businesses have 24–30 months to finalize any deals.

In his seminal guide to combat strategy, “The Art of War,” Chinese military general Sun Tzu wrote, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Great advice, except many companies tend to confuse tactics with strategy. They know strategy is important, but they consider it an exercise — something performed quickly, sometimes even haphazardly, without assembling the baseline information necessary to develop an effective growth strategy.

With great wealth, comes great responsibility, and given the complexity of risks faced by the high net worth individual, even greater due diligence is required to protect against financial loss and emotional distress.

The Internet has brought incomprehensible changes to our world over the last 20 years. Technology is so prevalent in our society that whether or not you personally shop online, use apps, or conduct web-based banking, you could find yourself a victim of a cyberattack. This issue of Abbot Downing Perspectives “Cyber (In)Security” addresses how we reached the point where high profile breaches are somewhat commonplace, best practices for prevention and detection of attacks, and steps to take if you’ve been hacked.

Perhaps related to unsettled politics and radical groups in various countries, Kidnappings of foreign nationals worldwide have increased by more than 60% in the past five years.The risk of a kidnap and ransom (K&R) situation is a very real risk for some families, particularly those with high public visibility, who hold a position of power, or who live abroad or frequently travel internationally. It could prove vital for families to examine the issue and have a plan in place.

The first in-depth exploration from our global family business survey, “women in leadership” shows that family businesses believe in the value of women in leadership overall, not only women family members.

Estate planning and wealth management involve the founder’s goals, family and assets. Unresolved substance use disorders (SUDs) will undermine the best plans and intent in all three areas. However, trustees and attorneys frequently overlook clients engaging in addictive behavior because they are unaware of the symptoms of the disease, don’t know what to do or don’t believe it’s their role to become involved.

Some data security disasters make news because they involve household names -- Target Stores, Sony Online Entertainment and Home Depot, among others. While other data breaches make headlines because they reveal embarrassing information -- e.g., Ashley Madison.