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Timing isn’t everything in year-end charitable giving — it’s the only thing. When considering year-end charitable gifts, donors should keep these simple steps in mind.

Asset Diversification

This article addresses the complex U.S. tax rules governing cross-border grant-making by private foundations.

“Mentoring is more than just a relationship between two individuals,” said James Ruddy, who launched a discussion on the topic at an enlightening and laughter-punctuated session at the 2005 Family Office Exchange CEO Forum. An attentive audience heard four diverse perspectives on the role of mentoring as a means to educate and groom successive generations.

Selling the family-owned business is one of the most important financial decisions and transactions that any family will face. Business owners, their children and grandchildren will live with the results for a long time to come. Getting it right is important to maximize family wealth, and some basic advance planning — even several years in advance — could help achieve that critical goal.

In today's world, domestic asset protection trusts can be a useful planning tool. However, under certain circumstances can be subject to intense scrutiny. Holland+Knight defines and outlines the case for domestic asset protection trusts.

Leadership succession and governance are important issues for every financial family. However, these issues are especially complex for business-owning families. To explore succession from an expert perspective, FOX spoke with Kelin Gersick, co-founder and senior partner of Lansberg, Gersick & Associates, a consulting and research firm specializing in family enterprise and philanthropy.

For most people, being part of a family means learning the family culture and passing the family’s values through the generations. If philanthropy is part of a family’s ethos and identity, most parents agree that there are many ways to incorporate the concept as well as the practice of giving in day-to-day life.

Trust is not only crucial to success among the owners of substantial wealth but also the sine qua non for successful teamwork among professionals who work with them. There can be dangers, however, in too much trust and too little healthy confrontation, just as there are in mistrust and chronic conflict.

This article highlights the fact that most wealthy U.S. families customarily choose individuals rather than trust companies to serve as trustee, even for complex trusts holding very substantial assets and even though a family who can afford it now has the option of creating its own trust. The article also argues that reliance on individual trustees carries the risk that it depends on an unbroken line of succession from one 'wise' (competent, diligent) trustee to the next, with little or no transition time or cushion to adjust for unexpected events.