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As new and established tax provisions shape the current tax environment, it’s clear that understanding the landscape of tax law changes and expiring tax credits is key as a high-income taxpayer or business owner preparing for year-end. With this year-end tax guide, you’ll find useful insights, data, and instructive planning information on income and deductions; executive compensation; investing; real estate; business ownership; charitable giving; family and education; retirement; estate planning; and tax rates.

Owning a private aircraft can provide many advantages for high-net-worth individuals, business owners, and entrepreneurs. However, it’s important to understand the tax complexities and costs associated with aircraft ownership. Here we explore six key tax implications of owning a private aircraft. Keeping in mind there are many nuances to these tax implications, the high-level overview provides insights for consideration when thinking about buying a private aircraft.

Acknowledging both the potential and the challenges associated with artificial intelligence (AI), the White House has issued a 100-plus page Executive Order titled “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” and accompanying “Fact Sheet” summary.

The advances and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial markets are raising novel risks for broker-dealers and investment advisors. The risks include, but are not limited to conflicts of interest, market manipulation, deception, fraud, data privacy, and discrimination. Recognizing the risks, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have already proposed laws and established a specialized team to address emerging issues and risks around AI.

The global economy faced a high degree of difficulty in 2023, but it earned high marks with continued growth, labor markets remaining strong, and declining inflation amid the ongoing expansion. The soft-landing narrative has considerable allure, but the three-year-old expansion is vulnerable. Higher interest rates are exacting an increasing toll, and the cycle has been challenged by an unsettling series of unfortunate events. In this special report, the Northern Trust Economics team shares its outlook for growth, inflation, employment, and interest rates in the year ahead.

More family offices are embracing emerging technologies to optimize their operations and prepare for future opportunities; however, success hinges on establishing a clear future-state vision, documenting business requirements, assembling the right team of people, and implementing the right technology solutions at the right time. It’s a digital transformation that uses a holistic approach to encourage stakeholder engagement and bring operational efficiencies and lasting value to the organization.

The Senate Bill 54 (the “SB 54”) was signed into law in California and will take effect March 1, 2025 for all investments made during calendar year 2024. The law will require “covered entities” to report the demographic information of “founding team members” of all companies in which the covered entity has invested. The law is meant to address the lack of venture capital funding flowing to diverse founders and is the first of its kind.

Creating portfolios that are customized to a family’s unique investment goals and risk tolerance requires ingenuity and flexible thinking. However, the execution of risk management should be more systematic. Ultimately, the effective investors employ a risk management framework that accounts for potential risk at every stage of the investment process—one that considers four crucial components: strategic risk, implementation risk, portfolio monitoring, and communication.

For leaders of founder-owned companies, simply making the decision to sell or bring in an outside investor can be anxiety inducing. The transaction process itself is often filled with apprehensive moments—arguably none more so than the potential of sensitive information leaking. This primer helps business owners understand how to avoid leaks, how they might emerge, and how to handle them. It details three common scenarios: (1) when there are signs of a possible leak; (2) when signs of a leak are clearer; and (3) when media coverage appears imminent.

Trusts are valuable tools frequently used to transfer wealth within families, preserve and protect wealth, and reduce taxes. Understanding trusts and the role of the trustee is important for the people establishing trusts and the beneficiaries of those trusts. Building on this foundation, answers are provided to some questions about trusts and trustees that a family’s younger generation of trust beneficiaries frequently ask.