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Wealth management and tax planning, done right, require care and a thoughtful approach. Helping you be vigilant in these and all other aspects is the purpose of this guide, which walks you through the key concepts and approaches pertaining to tax planning, investing, charitable giving, estate and gift planning, business succession, family meetings, family offices, risk management, and cross-border considerations.

Whether a grantor is struggling with ensuring that a trust fulfills the intentions for which it was established or simply wants to sleep better at night knowing the trust assets will be managed and monitored effectively, the directed trust statute provides the flexibility and incentives needed to improve the long-term outcome.

Selecting one’s home state as the situs may be a convenient or easy answer. However, the ability to implement a trust that may last forever, eliminate additional transfer taxes after funding and avoid state income taxes may provide the financial incentive to stray from home, or at least to consider it.

In 2012, total charitable giving rose to $316 billion in the United States, driven by an $8 billion increase in gifts by individuals. This year, individual donations are likely to continue growing, spurred by tax changes, the improving economy and donor-friendly IRA rules. Here are five reasons why 2013 is a great year to give.

The allocation of receipts and disbursements between principal and interest are critical to the proper design and administration of trusts. Individuals creating trusts should have an appreciation and basic understanding of these concepts so the trusts will operate consistent with the settlors’ intentions and provide the intended benefits.

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 maintained the gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes that were scheduled to sunset prior to 2013 and increased the exemptions for all three taxes to $5.25 million, making new or additional gifts to trusts a more attractive option in estate planning.

New Hampshire has a robust set of modern trust laws, which afford settlors broad flexibility and creativity in designing trusts well suited to their specific needs and wishes. Those laws facilitate the more efficient administration of trusts and, importantly, provide a high level of certainty concerning the rights, duties and powers of settlors, beneficiaries, trustees, trust advisors and trust protectors.

Without a full understanding of U.S. federal gift tax and income tax issues associated with a gift of money to a U.S. child, it is easy for a nonresident alien to convert what would have been a tax-free gift to taxable income. This guide outlines the most common gift-giving mistakes and how to avoid them.

For foreign entrepreneurs seeking to bring their businesses to the United States, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa may seem like the perfect fit. Looks, however, can be deceiving. Green card holders are subject immediately to U.S. federal income tax on their worldwide income and informational reporting requirements for their foreign interests.

When carried interest is transferred early in a fund’s life, it can have a very low value relative to its potential value at payout. It’s this payout potential that makes it an ideal asset to be used in estate tax-reduction planning, especially when used in combination with a grantor trust allowing for that appreciation to compound on an income tax-free basis.