Lifetime gifting, to children or others, has been a popular technique to reduce estate taxes for a long time. Currently, with estate tax exemption amounts exceeding $11 Million per person, most people do not have an urgent tax savings motivation for making gifts. However, this doesn’t mean that sticking to a gifting program is without value. The ultimate measure is at death and, at that time, your property is likely to be worth more than it is today and it’s entirely possible that the amount exempted from taxes will be less. Aside from tax savings, our clients see at least 2 […]
Read More
As trusted advisors, we see it as our job to alert you to strategies that can help build and protect your family’s wealth and the lifestyle it supports. From a macro perspective, we see an estate tax that takes essentially no wealth from the vast majority of families, historically high federal deficits, and a real possibility for an administration change that would take us in the direction of more assets being lost to estate and gift taxes. An important and impactful estate tax minimization strategy has always been to use your exemption sooner rather than later. Even if the exemption amount stays […]
Read More
Protecting your assets from creditors (“asset protection”) is a topic you don’t think much about until a triggering event, and then it can jump to the top of your priorities. The triggering event may be an accident with personal injuries on your property, a contract commitment turning bad, or involvement in a financial project where substantial resources are lost. Asset protection planning can take many forms, including changing asset titles or setting up structures, such as LLCs or Trusts, to own assets. With respect to Trusts, in the past these have probably gotten more press than their actual usage would […]
Read More
Many folks have not considered holding a family meeting in a slightly more formal setting like one of your advisor’s offices. There can be many advantages to these. Confidence is an important outcome that we talk about here. Do your spouse and children know what to do if you are not there? Whether they articulate it in advance or not, most families express a substantial improvement in their sense of security knowing there are caring professionals with knowledge of their situation who are there and ready to help at any point. This is also a great time to develop and perpetuate […]
Read More
Succession Planning: Overcoming Procrastination and Creating Confidence If any of these sound like you, then you may be an entrepreneur who is reluctant to plan for the future of your business: (1) Need for control; (2) Strong work ethic; (3) Immortality complex. We have techniques to help business owners overcome their procrastination about succession planning. These include providing assurance on financial security and cash flow, painting realistic exit strategies, and pointing out opportunities for tax savings. Utilizing these and other success strategies can give you greater confidence about the future, for your business and your family. *Intended as general guidance […]
Read More
September 5th is the International Day of Charity and its purpose, at least in part, is to raise awareness for charities all over the world. Helping many folks plan, as we do, how their wealth can most benefit themselves and their families and communities, it seems an appropriate occasion to share a few thoughts on charity from our perspective. Rather than recite all the techniques that help maximize estate, gift and income tax benefits of charitable gifts, it may be more useful to say: If you plan to make a significant gift to charity, whether it is on a one-time […]
Read More
