The US Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion issued June 19, 2014, implemented a new standard for courts to employ in determining if a taxpayer may challenge whether the Internal Revenue Service has issued a summons in good faith. In light of the Service’s new procedures for administering Information Document Requests, including the potential for summons enforcement, this opinion provides important guidance to taxpayers who may find themselves in the midst of a summons enforcement action.
Family Office Best Practices
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Don’t Start at Square One – Implementing Technology
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Join this session to hear a family office’s first-hand account of implementing new general ledger and CRM technologies. The Duchossois Group family office joins consultants from Infograte, Hale Solutions and Sikich LLP to share highlights and lessons learned from the project.
To make decisions about the future, families need reports that provide a full view of their integrated risk exposure and their allocation across all family entities. Yet such aggregate reports remain the elusive Holy Grail of our industry. It is often promised by product providers, but product capabilities often still fall short of expectations.
Human Capital Trends and Insights
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In this news alert, the author, Perkins Coie, highlights that the SEC is expected to allow two separate exemptive orders being sought from the Family Office Rule with respect to distaff members of a family under the Investment Advisors Act.Because the distaff issue has the potential to affect so many single-family offices, the author believes this is a welcome development, and it is hoped that the SEC will amend the Family Office Rule to make this additional exemptive relief available to every single-family office that has a distaff issue now or in the future.
The loss of a spouse to either death or divorce is one of the most traumatic experiences anyone can go through. Life will change irrevocably in many ways for the surviving spouse or separated partners. This article reviews often-neglected steps that may lessen the burden and financial issues that you and/or your spouse may face when this painful loss occurs. So-called “widow planning”—applying equally to widowers and to contingency plans for divorce—is an essential part of any couple’s financial preparedness.
Institutionalize Your Life Insurance Portfolio
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It is frequently suggested that that family offices should mimic institutions and adopt an institutionally disciplined and process-oriented approach when managing their investment portfolios. Through a process-oriented approach, institutions and family offices can be more effective and produce more efficient long-term results.
Passwords: They're Not All They're Cracked Up To Be
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Plante Moran provides an in-depth look at password security and sheds light on some of the hacking tools out there. These tools are far better at guessing than you may imagine and, at rates of up to billions of guesses per second, much more persistent.So, what are our options? How can we combat this rising issue?
How are wealth owners managing the investment process? Who is making investment decisions, and what kind of results did those decisions yield in a year where the S & P 500 returned 32%? Using recent FOX research, Sara Hamilton will answer these questions and share 2013 asset allocation and performance data for survey participants. She will review the challenges and successes of 2013 and preview wealth owner investment plans and priorities for 2014.
While the concept of discussing the values and expectations surrounding philanthropy aren’t new and advisors are tasked with satisfying the gifting expectations of the families they serve, as indicated in the 2013 U.S. Trust and The Philanthropic Initiative research on philanthropy—there is a significant disconnect between advisor approach and client expectations.