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Disagreements and discord can arise when it comes to your family vacation home, a unique asset that symbolizes important memories and family connections. For this reason, you should specifically address the vacation home in your estate plan to avoid hard feelings and even disputes. With thoughtful and proactive planning, a family can avoid many of the pitfalls that happen as a treasured asset moves from one generation to the next.

The pandemic that was the dominant news story of 2020 will continue to hold its position for much of 2021. Between hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine and expectations for the Biden administration, how should investors think about the year ahead?

Real estate has always been a tax-advantaged investment class, especially in the U.S. where rules allow you to shelter income or cashflow through depreciable losses and other mechanisms. For the investors who want deeper insights into all aspects of their real estate investments, they see how technology is transforming their ability to evaluate their tax obligations and how it can even assist them in deciphering implications of a U.S. presidential election.

In December 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill representing the most significant change to the New York law governing Powers of Attorney (POA) in almost a decade. In an effort to increase the acceptance of POAs, the new law redefines the POA. Other notable changes include expanded options for execution, additional third-party protection, and protection against unreasonable rejection of legitimate POAs.

The stakes are high: climate change is creating an urgent need for a lower-carbon economy, and the Biden administration will face the daunting challenge of reigniting the U.S. economy in the wake of the pandemic, and energy may be a critical catalyst of that recovery. Dr. Daniel Yergin—a leading global authority on energy, economics and geopolitics, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author—talks about the future of energy, and how that future may shape innovation, international relations, and the economy in the years ahead.

Investors have seemingly been concerned about Brexit since day one, and equity performance may have suffered because of it. This brings to light an important consideration for passive investors: the exact contents of their chosen benchmarks, which can make for a poor investment portfolio in many asset classes due to high levels of concentration.

Estate planning can encompass more than addressing your potential tax exposure. It frequently requires protection of a “fragile beneficiary,” who can include family members with disabilities, individuals struggling with addiction, spendthrifts, and even minors. With planning options available through various trusts, there are ways in which to motivate and protect your loved ones.

Minority owners of a business face unique challenges. With limited or no control over the management and governance of a business, minority owners can be unfairly left in the cold or squeezed out. However, deliberate preparation and negotiation at the initial stages of the business can set up minority owners with the necessary tools and formation agreement to eliminate or reduce many of these difficulties and even avoid future conflict.

Unlike businesses with a single controlling owner or several owners, a 50/50 business by its very nature is ripe for disagreement between its owners. Owners of a 50/50 business will need to proactively consider how to handle disagreements when setting up their business venture and drafting their operating agreement, shareholders agreement, or partnership agreement. In a 50/50 arrangement, there are ways owners can negotiate and draft the company’s governing documents to anticipate four common areas of disagreement.

There’s a fading but lingering misconception that socially responsible investing (SRI) means sacrificing returns against a benchmark. The source of concern—and misconception—can often be traced to confusion around the tracking error. By understanding what’s behind a portfolio’s deviation from the performance of its benchmark, investors will see how to make it work in a responsible portfolio.