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No one is comfortable discussing the day of their funeral, but taking control of that inevitable conversation and organizing a principal’s final wishes is simply the right thing to do for their family, their legacy and their enterprise. Making arrangements after the loss or, preferably, preparing an end-of-life plan in advance, involves some of the more challenging personal choices one will ever make.

The American Tax Payer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) was passed on New Year’s Day 2013, and established the first permanentset of estate, gift and generation skipping transfer (GST) tax provisions in 12 years. Each year, the administration puts forth tax proposals that may change the current law. This article provides a quick summary of several of the latest revenue proposals submitted by the Obama administration that might affect individual taxpayers and future estate and tax planning strategies.

Boards can assist with some of the particularly challenging issues family companies face. There are several different factors that should be considered as a board is created or renewed. While each family company’s situation is unique and every scenario cannot be addressed, the goal is to provide a framework of how corporate governance practices apply to family companies.

This Family Business Corporate Governance Series "What is a Board's Role in a Family Business?" explains how to build an effective board for your family company, and how boards can assist with some of the particularly challenging issues family companies face.

Pitcairn and The Corporate Greenhouse have co-written a case study that validates why talent planning and business planning are equally important and interdependent. The case study discusses how Pitcairn’s CEO is transforming a 90-year-old family business into a high-performing multi‑family office with increased profitability, streamlined processes, and happier employees.

Family businesses that continue to prosper from one generation to the next often do so because they have robust governance structures. Nevertheless, many family businesses have not given enough thought to governance. They rely too much on a carefree attitude toward issues such as succession, ownership and management, and they wait until one of these issues becomes an unavoidable problem before attempting to deal with it.

It is easy to understand why the American underclass has almost insurmountable obstacles to living the American Dream. What may not be so obvious is how difficult it may be for the wealth inheritor to live the American Dream.