Drain the Usual Suspects: Can Overfunded Life Protect HNW Clients from Coming Tax Rises?
We stand at the tree line, all silent for a moment, waiting to cross the fateful valley. I’m not talking about Faulkner’s fantasy...
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Book of Lamentations: Tony Hsieh Latest to Die Will-less
Mourn the poor rich man, who died in his prime and left a tremendous mess for his loved ones to clear up. Tony Hsieh, the 46-year...
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Don’t Stop the Presses: Democrats Propose Ultra-Rich Tax
I live on a quiet street. There’s a pothole in the road outside my gate. Our neighbor’s mutt likes to wander over and lie in it. We...
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Wholly Appealing: The Planning Benefits of Whole Life Insurance for HNW Clients
My father was a straight arrow, as true flying as they come, but he wasn’t without his New England oddities. I’m not talking about...
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Waiting, Expectantly: Preparing for Eventual Higher Estate Taxes
I called one of my first colleagues in finance, a London-born specialist now in estate planning, who works out of Baltimore. What...
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Facing Facts, Perhaps: Joe Biden’s Tax Plans for the Wealthy
We return to the subject of potential tax rises and I apologize right from the start. Still, we must face facts, whatever those...
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California’s Dreaming: Wealth Tax Proposal Joins Tax-the-Rich Parade
The last time we spoke, we talked about California Democrats’ plans to kick the state’s top-tier tax rate up to an all-American...
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Sympathy for the Wealthy: Strategies to Combat Prospective Tax Increases
A dear friend celebrated his birthday the other day – he’s nearing 50 now, but is still younger than me, somehow. He lives in a...
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For HNW Clients, Cash Value Life Insurance Offers Solid Planning Value
Universal and whole life insurance policies seem to be slipping out of favor with estate planners and financial advisors. They rate...
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No Different than You or Me, After All: The Wealthy and the Coronavirus Crisis
The coronavirus crisis is touching even the toughest of souls. A good friend of ours at an aggressive venture capital firm has been...
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Rich are Rattled and Seeking Old-Fashioned Security
Rich are Rattled and Seeking Old-Fashioned Security Mayfair is one of the most elegant areas of London, and there you’ll find 46...
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Helping HNW Clients Decide to Self-Insure Against LT Care Costs – or Not
It’s a bit of boilerplate in the profession: high-net-worth clients should provide for long-term healthcare expenses via...
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Estate Tax Can Pay for States Even if the Super-Rich Flee
When Walmart founder James L. Walton died in 1995, the state of Arkansas enjoyed a windfall. Walton’s fortune was $1.65 billion...
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A Special Relationship: Making Rich Clients Happy in Ways the Other Advisors Won’t
They’re the customers of most financial advisers’ dreams: top-level executives enjoying multi-million-dollar incomes. There are a...
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They’re Looking for You: How Rich Customers Find an Adviser
When an affluent person is looking for a financial adviser, how do they begin their search? That’s an essential question to...
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Where Have All the High Net Worth Clients Gone?
Traditionally, the aged and the rich have headed south to avoid the icy winds of winter, flocking to Florida to work on their tans...
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