Resource Search

Among the items on the list are basic tax-free gift opportunities, larger exempt gifts, tax-free transfers to credit shelters and family trusts, IRAs and retirement benefits, charitable contributions from IRAs, low interest rates related to leveraged gifting opportunities, decanting and creative planning with irrevocable trusts, and family C corporations.

This guide covers wealth management and tax planning strategies to consider before year-end and into 2012. Topics include tax management, wealth transfer planning, education funding, philanthropy, retirement, liabilities management, insurance, business owner issues, tax implications of health care reform, and building a strategic plan.

As an emerging asset class, energy-related master limited partnerships offer high and generally growing yields, an identifiable catalyst (significant build-out of the U.S. natural gas distribution infrastructure) to support continued growth, and favorable tax treatment. However, this type of MLP is quite complicated and deserves careful study.

The most effective investment strategy may be to employ an approach recognizing that investment markets move in a more cyclical than linear fashion. This approach would include seeking extreme valuations, respecting the trend in the absence of extremes, and increasing the opportunity set by exploring the full-risk spectrum.

A move from one investment manager to another comes with costs that are not easy to identify but should be considered before making the switch. A transition manager can help in assessing the issues and coordinating the logistics and the execution process.

Commodity allocations in model portfolios have moved from being exotic to commonplace. The benefits being sought by such allocations typically include protection against inflation and diversification. While commodity allocations can serve both of these roles handily, the manner in which some clients implement these strategies potentially reduces the desired benefits.

Most investors believe an index-based ETF, ETN or swap will give them an experience similar to the equity markets, where an index-based product represents an unbiased view of the market portfolio, using market capitalization as weights. Unfortunately, this intuition proves misguided due to important differences in how these indexes are constructed.

The authors discuss their criteria for choosing alternative investments, the number of these investments to include in a portfolio, how to allocate strategically and when to change that allocation, and the practical challenges for implementation.

Politics still seem to trump economics in the United States and Europe, although a renewed U.S. downturn seems avoidable and Greece is likely to move ahead with an orderly default. Now may be the time to consider a modest increase in equity risk positions, particularly for information technology and financials.

Families that successfully manage generational planning actively foster communication and trust within the family, identify shared values that define the family, take time to establish a thoughtful family governance system and give younger members the opportunity to have an impact through active participation in family affairs.