This white paper details strategies that take advantage of today’s favorable wealth transfer climate, and some important planning ideas designed to prepare your estate for the uncertainties of 2013.
Understanding the exposures involved with direct private equity investing as well as the insurance solutions to address those exposures is essential when implementing a direct private equity investment strategy for family offices.
Home networks, social media and mobile devices have enriched our lives in many ways, but they have also multiplied the opportunities for security breaches. Families, especially those of substantial means, need to carefully evaluate the precautionary measures and protocols that protect their cyber environments.
Current law provides that on January 1, 2013, income tax rules revert to significantly higher pre-2001 levels. In addition, it appears that the new Medicare Hospital Insurance taxes for high-income individuals will go into effect in 2013 following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the majority of the Obama health care law. Congress is unlikely...
Over the past several months, private investors and their advisors have been pondering the wisdom of accelerating long-term capital gains in the 2012 tax year. This paper looks at why.
This paper reviews the expanded federal gift exemption that is set to expire at the end of 2012 and the tax differences that are set to occur on gifts given before and after December 31, 2012. Hemenway & Barnes also reviews various trust instruments, including a generation-skipping trust and a grantor trust.
SmartLife Funding dynamically manages life insurance by aligning the funding strategy with the insureds health profile to target the optimum period of coverage.
The “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance & Job Creation Act of 2010” (TRA 2010) reunified the gift and estate tax systems and increased the amount a person can transfer to children and future generations during lifetime or at death to $5,000,000. As of the beginning of 2012, indexing puts that number at $5,120,000. The window on this...
Volatile financial markets can create potential problems for investors and their advisors. While many expenses are generally fixed, assets designated to fund expenses may increase or decrease in value. In a worst case scenario, managers may have to liquidate assets at potentially “distressed” levels to meet these obligations. This paper reviews a ...
Modifications, reformations and decanting of a trust have all gained in popularity as a result of modernized trust laws, changes in family circumstances and/or a desire to change trust administration. This paper looks at some of the benefits of South Dakota's decanting, modification and reformation statutes.
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (2010 Tax Act) reinstated the gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes that were repealed earlier in 2010. The reinstatement comes with increased transfer tax exemptions and favorable rates for 2012. Get a closer look at the details in this white pa...
The term “family bank” grew from the idea that a Dynasty Trust can act much like a traditional bank by providing resources to fund particular needs of beneficiaries in successive generations, for instance, purchasing real estate and other large assets, funding business endeavors, providing family distributions to fund “health, edu...
Personal liability for family members serving individually as a trustee can result from improper asset allocation, lack of diversification, unacceptable due diligence and monitoring, environmental issues with real estate, and other distribution and/or investment issues. The directed trust and private family trust company (PFTC) are two great option...
For many private collectors of fine art, lending artwork from their collection to a museum or cultural institution is a highly valuable and meaningful experience. For the good of the arts, it is very important that collectors continue to loan, but for the protection of collectors, it is also important that the financial value of the artwork be full...
Incentives, credits, and deductions within the U.S. tax system are currently in the spotlight, and most advisors are aware that unprecedented exemptions for gift and estate taxes are set to expire on December 31, 2012. Less clear, however, is how families can manage their assets to capitalize on the credits before the window closes. This article lo...