On the rise is Americans’ interest in living outside the U.S. for an extended period or even indefinitely. There are many different reasons for wanting to move to new countries, including career prospects, favorable financial conditions, love and family, and often simply for la dolce vita. Whatever the reason, a thoughtful and holistic approach is strongly recommended for anyone yearning to try an expat life. Before making the move abroad, it’s important to consider how that move would affect all aspects of your life and wealth planning.
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Rather than viewing trusts as a mechanism to protect beneficiaries from the dangers of wealth, what if trusts were viewed as vehicles to “ignite a fire” within the next generation? Imagine a trust structure that is designed to cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurialism by making beneficiaries active participants rather than passive recipients of their inheritance. For those who believe an entrepreneur’s trust may be a valuable tool for their family, here are six key features of the trusts to consider implementing, in collaboration with your estate planning attorney and wealth advisor.
Something revolutionary has happened. Suddenly, anyone with an internet connection, armed only with the ability to hold a conversation in a chat app, could wield the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI). After the debut of ChatGPT, AI continues to become ever more deeply intertwined into our lives and businesses.
Family offices continue to be the preferred way for ultra-high net worth individuals and families to manage assets and to support the goals and legacy of their family. But with more than 14,000 family offices across the globe facing new challenges and complexities, raising concerns about whether their operating model is providing the transparency and efficiency needed to be successful today while being flexible for tomorrow.
Simply because the instrument governing your trust states that it is irrevocable and cannot be amended does not mean it cannot be modified to serve your family’s needs in a better fashion. Delaware law offers an array of options—administrative amendment, decanting, a nonjudicial settlement agreement, consent modification, trust merger, and judicial modification—to facilitate alteration of an existing trust. Learn more about these remedies to determine if one of them will suit your purpose and achieve lasting improvement in your trust’s operation.
In this interview, attorney John Litchfield of Foley & Lardner’s Labor & Employment group discusses the key considerations family offices should keep in mind when it comes to domestic workers in the family office environment. Along with insights on household staff salary and wage treatments in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), John defines who qualifies as a domestic worker and the legal implications of hiring one.
With below-average returns expected over the next five years, it’s clear that getting asset allocation right will be essential to delivering on the key challenges of our time: achieving purchasing power parity and avoiding any permanent capital impairment. By using a forward-looking, historically-aware framework for developing long-term return forecasts across asset classes, there are key considerations and underlying themes for family office and long-duration investors to keep in mind to help tackle their strategic and tactical portfolio construction decisions.
In moving past the “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” adage, advisors in the family wealth space are emphasizing the importance of the family’s qualitative capitals that go beyond serving only the financial capital goals. This shift has elevated the family client experience and expectations. It’s part of the Wealth 3.0 movement that brings with it a refocus on the different goals of various family types, the importance of qualitative capitals, the evolution of family governance, and the human capital of legacy families and the rising generation.
Employers need to be mindful of building culture as they embrace hybrid work. In this conversation, business leaders explore the topic and discuss the critical aspects of engaging employees in a hybrid work environment. They stress the importance of demonstrating company culture, fostering collaboration and innovation through purposeful in-person moments, and providing transparency in career development and overall organizational strategy. Learn how empowered and engaged employees drive client relationships and fuel business growth.
Irrevocable trusts are a great way to minimize estate taxes and keep more of your wealth in the family, but they require you to permanently give up ownership and control of the assets you place in them. For people who are hesitant about the irrevocable aspect of the trust, there is the spousal lifetime access trusts, or SLAT, that can be an excellent estate-planning tool that allows indirect access to trust assets and income through the beneficiary spouse. Plus utilizing the SLAT’s grantor trust status, can make this type of trust especially palatable.