Trusts and Trustees
We are socialized to believe that we get what we pay for. In the case of trustee and planning services, does the lack of a stated fee imply to clients that these services have little value? Preston McSwain offers his perspective.
These days, the role of a fiduciary is fraught with challenges and potential pitfalls, ranging from investing in challenging market conditions to ensuring all beneficiaries are treated fairly.
Lawsuits involving estates and trusts are on the rise. Here are 10 tips for trustees to bear in mind to avoid litigation.
If President Obama's proposed budget for 2013 makes it through Congress, there are only a few months to go before a popular trust strategy — the sale of an asset to an intentionally defective grantor trust, or IDGT — may be eliminated.
For most U.S. taxpayers, April 15 is a red-letter day. But that doesn’t mean tax matters should be filed and forgotten about until next year. There are several favorable estate, gift, and generating-skipping transfer (GST) tax provisions that are set to expire at the end of the year, unless Congress acts to extend them in the coming months. That means there is still time for your clients to take advantage of larger exclusions and lower tax rates.
Consider this scenario: a college alumnus starts a successful technology company, cashes out and donates a big chunk to his alma mater. In return, the school asks him to serve on the board of directors of the endowment fund. The entrepreneur is a respected professional in the tech industry but isn’t a professional investor and has never served as a trustee. Now what?
We hear a lot these days about “holistic” wealth management — service that goes beyond traditional investment advice — and how advisers should handle the disparate needs of their clients as part of a seamless whole. One of these needs is trust and estate planning. In all cases, it's an attorney who drafts the trust document, but that doesn't mean wealth advisers don't have a role to play.