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Evaluating and purchasing a capture device begins with a careful assessment of needs. This paper provides guidance not only in determining those needs but also in calculating the return on investment and total cost of ownership of converting paper documents to digital and incorporating them in an enterprise document management system.

Good e-mail management involves adequately capturing, categorizing, indexing, storing and protecting business information contained in e-mails, making it retrievable when needed and disposing of it according to company policies. Implementing an email management system for your company means doing some homework, but careful planning and preparation will lead to success.

The family office integrates many diverse components – taxes, philanthropic giving, trusts, personal services, property management and legal matters. A carefully chosen document management system can streamline these many pieces and reduce the overall cost of doing business.

Private investment firms that can differentiate themselves by demonstrating an infrastructure that includes complete partnership and portfolio accounting, system-enforced controls and full transparency while being able to manage complex portfolio strategies, ownership structures and allocations have a significant advantage in growing their businesses.

The crisis of confidence in private banking has some obvious causes. It also has one not so obvious remedy: change the ownership structure. This remedy, however, requires a high level of involvement in all aspects of the business. For those families willing to make the commitment, Mutual Private Bank says, the only confidence that matters may be in their own choices.

Wealthy global families are becoming increasingly aware of their need for a well thought out citizenship and residency strategy to protect their wealth and to safeguard their freedom of movement. This paper from Northwood Family Office makes the case for Canada as a safe and surprisingly tax-efficient alternative to many of the more well known citizenships the wealthy can consider acquiring.

Ecological agriculture is pre-programmed to generate superior climate change performance as measured by soil organic matter, biodiversity, carbon sequestration and materially reduced GHG emissions. This also generates significant opportunities for creating additional and attractive income streams from environmental markets, according to new research from Agro-Ecological Investment Management.

Contrary to what some investors think, embedded capital losses in stock mutual funds may not be tax advantageous, according to Hammond Associates. If capital gains rates remain at current levels, those capital loss carry-forwards add value for shareholders, albeit modest. If capital gains tax rates increase after 2010, loss carry-forwards may impose additional costs on shareholders who invest before 2011.

Portfolios can evaporate by being too concentrated, overly leveraged or simply having inferior investment management that does not focus on the long term or loses it on poorly timed speculation. A brief paper from The Beringer Group recommends that great wealth be invested utilizing a solid set of investment principles designed to preserve and grow assets over multiple market cycles.

This report from Credit Suisse examines historical trends for philanthropy during economic downturns and explores the effects of the current recession on funders and non-profits. It also provides a series of recommendations for philanthropists and their advisors on grantmaking during the downturn. While based on U.S. data, many of these recommendations are relevant to individuals and organizations globally.