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Over the past 30 years, families have worked hard and invested enormous resources to create the plans and structures that promise to carry the family into the future and ensure its long-term success. The vast majority of these investments have focused on the quantitative disciplines that serve the family’s financial capital – the collective discipl...

For all the risks that tend to step up as you age, there are also far more opportunities to live life the way you want to, and probably longer and in reasonable health. What will help smooth the transition through the stages of aging will be a proactive approach to managing potential roadblocks on the way. As you begin this journey, the more aware ...

Sometimes, unfortunately, a trip to the hospital is unforeseen and unplanned. Often, however, procedures and elective surgery are scheduled in advance. If this is the case for you or a loved one, planning ahead for a hospital stay and taking a few simple steps can ensure greater comfort and a faster recovery. This is important for everyone, but esp...

The death of a loved one is a difficult and emotional time for a family. There is often additional stress if you are appointed as the executor of the will and trustee of your family’s trusts, especially if the deceased had been the sole manager of substantial family assets and wealth. For an untrained person, it can be a daunting role. For these re...

Families are often overwhelmed by the complexity and sense of burden that comes with managing all the component parts of wealth across generations. More concerning, though, is the lost opportunities and the loss of capital that results from not getting it right. But owning and managing significant wealth does not have to be difficult, and learning ...

When done well, a trustee’s service can have a profoundly positive impact on a family; when done poorly, a trustee’s service can create or exacerbate fissures within a family, dissipate family wealth, create personal liability for the trustee, and create a public spectacle that sullies the family’s good name and reputation. For key employees in fam...

Ultimately, how well your wealth transfer plan fulfills your legacy and meets the needs of the next—and future—generations depends on whom you name as your trustee(s). This makes your trustee selection one of the most critical aspects of an already complex wealth planning process. To help navigate this selection process, work with a framework built...

While April may be the official month of financial literacy, investors should commit to staying informed all year round. Whether dealing with terms like meme stocks (stocks that typically trade on hype instead of fundamentals) or older ones like tracking error, there can be plenty of confusion around the language of investing. For both new and expe...

Serving as a trustee for your family can be a valuable experience for you, while also providing an important service to your family. But before you accept the position, make sure that you understand the role you will play for the family and are willing to accept the responsibilities and liability that come with it.

To effectively serve as a trustee, it's crucial to understand your fiduciary duties. Even trustees with the best of intentions can create liability for themselves by being unprepared for the job or by not fully understanding their obligations. Learn more about some of the common mistakes family trustees make that can lead to lawsuits and other...

Many families are not aware of important legal issues that affect their 18 – 21-year-old children. Parents are often so focused on the fact that the drinking age is 21 that they do not realize that their 18-year-olds are, for most other purposes, adults in the eyes of the law. Parents no longer have the same access to information or control over th...

With depression affecting as many as one in three adults, greater attention has been given to mental health in the workplace—including the impact poor mental health has on workplace morale, culture, and healthcare costs. Workplace culture initiatives that address and support employee mental health needs boost employee engagement, productivity, and ...

Consistently revisiting potential liquidity risk is important work for family investors, as many of these risks can lay silent for prolonged periods and become easy to overlook. In fact, unexpected liquidity demands can undo a lot of hard work and, in a worst-case scenario, force a fire sale of assets. By carrying out regular liquidity risk analyse...

While there are predictions of a recession amid a looming economic downturn, there are opportunities for investors to acquire distressed assets as part of their direct investing or mergers and acquisitions plan. In this 10-minute interview, attorney Tom Scannell highlights some of the issues potential buyers may face as they look at financially-dis...