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Hiring Family Members to Work for Your Business

The decision to hire family members for your business is a delicate balancing act that involves both personal and professional considerations. Working with loved ones can create a sense of trust and unity within the workplace and has been shown to increase business...

Is your Trust a Parachute or merely a Safety Net?

There is a wonderful recent story about a Minnesota family that has baptized 27 babies over three generations with a baptismal gown made from the World War II parachute that saved grandpa’s life! I’m always coming up with analogies for trusts and often use...

How to Talk to Your Family About Business Succession

Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” From the very beginning, you had a plan for your business to succeed. You set goals and developed methods to achieve those goals. Your business has stood the test of time because you...

Prodigal Son Breaks News To Dad That He Spent His Entire Inheritance On Gender Studies Degree

I stole the title of this post from a great Babylon Bee article that just came out. For those who don’t know, Babylon Bee is satire. Strangely, their satirical articles often do come true. And this particular title hews closely enough to family settings often...

FPC 20180206: Family Protection

  The term “family protection” is used in many different contexts. For example, in insurance planning it often refers to the concept of “income replacement” for a family bereft of its primary breadwinner. What should “family...

How Boomers Are Redefining ‘Legacy’

Some families construct a legacy of memories and real estate, say by buying a vacation property that is held in a trust or other structure so it is equally owned by all heirs. “That keeps it intact for at least another generation and ensures that it is not...

“Estate Planning” Needs an Extreme Makeover

  Great article. Personally, I call my practice “family protection” law and the author appears to be on the same page as me. In its most fundamental state, estate planning should support the family (or the individual) first, and thereafter concern...

Pushing Wealth Transfer Plans Into The 21st Century

  Among affluent families, the disconnect between what their current wealth transfer planning does, and what they want their planning to do, is staggering. While 75 percent of wealthy parents say it’s important to leave an inheritance to the next generation, only...

Introducing the IT-LIT: Irrevocable Terror Life Insurance Trust

Are 72 virgins really enough? What if they turn out to be 72 Virginians? If you are bound and determined to blow yourself into smithereens or commit some other irrevocable act of terror, at least buy some life insurance so your (surviving) descendants can live like...

Key Considerations for Preparing a Family Legacy Plan

  Over the next 20 years, $30 trillion dollars could be transferred from the current generation to the next, making now a critical time for advisors to discuss multigenerational planning with high net worth clients. Along with planning for the financial...

The Other Reasons For Estate Planning

  Good discussion of incentive trust planning: Many subjects that serve as substantial planning motivators aren’t found on client questionnaires and are frequently absent from planning discussions. Source: The Other Reasons For Estate Planning (Well actually, we...

Independence Is Not Just for Young Advisors

  So how does someone determine if he is “too old” to make independence work? It really comes down to a few key characteristics shared by those advisors who took the leap: They really wanted it. They believed in their ability to migrate clients and grow. They had...

Life Insurance: It Was Never Just About Taxes

  This article raises important points — plan for the long-term and don’t let taxes direct the planning over more important goals — plus it’s a good review of the many benefits of life insurance. But as I’ve previously noted, the...

Six Things Family-Owned Firms Should Know About Succession Planning

  Among the chief goals of succession planning is providing continuity of management and minimizing the tax costs of transferring property interests to new generations.Source: Six Things Family-Owned Firms Should Know About Succession Planning

Marijuana causes schizophrenia, heart attacks, and firearm prohibition

  And don’t forget it also bars you from possessing a firearm, under at least federal law. Marijuana does raise the risk of getting schizophrenia and triggers heart attacks, according to the most significant study on the drug’s effects to date....

Twelve “Star Wars” Lessons For Becoming A Financial Planning Jedi

  A truly nerdy advisor with too much time on his hands put this together. Why nothing on Star Trek TOS? In preparation for “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” here are 15 lessons from the film series to help you be a financial planning Jedi. Source:...

#AssetProtection: How “Gamification”’ Can Improve Family Education and Engagement

  Family businesses spend an extraordinary amount of time and capital (financial, human and intellectual) on skill building and education within the family system. Rising members of the family system must master many different skills. Some of these skills can be...

#AssetProtection: When Family Conflict Threatens the Business

When conflict arises between family and business goals, the natural inclination to minimize it can lead to a pattern of dysfunctional communication and greater conflict. The common practice of triangulation rarely leads to resolution of underlying issues and can be...

#VentureProtection: Once more, Ivanka Trump steps into spotlight for her father

Trump has long relied on his children in business. Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric all hold executive positions at the Trump Organization, working in side-by-side-offices a floor below their father’s.That same family-driven model has extended to politics. Trump’s...

Working long hours harms women but protects men, study shows 

Women who put in long hours in their careers greatly increase their risk of developing life-threatening illnesses, including heart disease and cancer, a new study has shown. Source: Working long hours harms women but protects men, study shows  If attacked, do you want...

Generation Snowflake feminists are creating a culture where women are terrified of being offended

A top British thinker has claimed young women are in the grip of a “hysteria” which has made them unable to cope with being offended. Claire Fox, head of a thinktank called the Institute of Ideas, has penned a coruscating critique of “Generation Snowflake”, the name...