Category: trust estate
Why an Estate Plan Is the Best Gift You Can Give Your Grandchild
While awaiting the recent birth of my first granddaughter, I spent a lot of time thinking about the best possible gift I could give her. Ultimately, I decided that the ideal present for my grandchild was to give her parents–my daughter and her husband–a professionally drafted estate plan.
How to Keep Heirs From Being Spendthrifts
This article was originally published to subscribers of The Wall Street Journal, found HERE.
Managing Generational Wealth Through Dynasty Trusts
If you have significant wealth you’d like to preserve, protect and share with future generations, a dynasty trust might be a strategic estate planning option to consider. The dynasty trust is a type of irrevocable trust that’s designed with the long-term, multi-generational transfer of wealth in...
Survivorship Planning Checklist
In many families, one partner takes a more active role in handling the finances than the other. Often, this division of labor stems from fear, time pressure or lack of interest. Regardless of the root cause, having one spouse exclusively handling family finances can put the other partner in a...
Why You Should Write a Letter to Your Executor–and What to Say in It
This article was originally published to subscribers of The Wall Street Journal, found HERE. I once had a client who half-jokingly told me he wanted to be buried with his iPhone in his hand so he could call me—the executor of his estate—from the afterlife to make his voice heard.
Multigenerational Family Unity and Prosperity
If you could see your children, grandchildren, and great-grand children together at a family gathering 50 years from now, what would you want to see and hear?
Establish Trusts to Create Peace of Mind
I recently had an older client with a significant net worth who spent most of his life in good health, but experienced a severe mental decline in his final years. Unfortunately, he never set up a trust to protect his assets, so it became challenging to look out for his best interests using only a...
What to Do When a Loved One is Diagnosed with Dementia
We have seen an increase in the number of our clients or their parents suffering from dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, there are just under 6 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s and this figure is expected to grow to nearly 14 million in the next 30 years. As we continue to...
7 Considerations for the Multigenerational Transfer of Wealth
Congratulations on becoming a grandparent! By any measure, this is an exciting, rewarding time. This life change also offers the opportunity to revisit your estate plan to determine the best ways to “pay it forward” for your grandchildren. What should you keep in mind when planning to share your...
Hiring a CFO to Manage Your Family’s Wealth
As you accumulate significant wealth, your financial world becomes increasingly complex. Your wealth may include not only stocks and bonds, but also private equity investments, real estate and perhaps a family business. Your estate plan may be complicated as well and may include a private...