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The more you know about yourself, the better your relationships will be—including with money. In this issue, we celebrate two people who are harnessing their experiences and expertise to help others understand the emotional side of money. From a conversation with Jennifer Risher on breaking the money taboo, to Stan Treger, a behavioral scientist, using psychology to unpack money stories—this issue shows that exploring your relationship with money can be the first step to taking charge of your wealth.

While it might seem like a great position to hold a concentrated position in a low-basis stock that has appreciated over time, it poses several challenges related to investment risk and taxes. Here are some charitable options for lowering your risk while doing the most good with your gains, whether that means giving to a worthy cause, gifting to a family member in a lower tax bracket, or both.

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was passed in late 2017, the “sunsetting” of many of the provisions in 2026 seemed far away. Among those of benefit to high-net-worth individuals was the increasing of the gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions to $11.18 million per person ($22.36 million for married couples) for 2018. The tax exemptions are indexed annually for inflation through December 31, 2025. For those who can afford to use the higher exemption, learn what’s at stake and what needs to happen before the exemption is significantly reduced.

While the tax environment has become more complex for businesses, there are opportunities to minimize their tax burden on the state and local level. In this 10-minute interview, attorney Lynn Gandhi of Foley & Lardner’s Tax group joins Brian Lucareli to discuss the impact of state and local taxes such as state income taxes, sales and use taxes, payroll taxes, excise taxes, and withholding taxes. Lynn also shares practical solutions and structures to avoid paying more taxes.

It may seem that there will always be time to address estate planning. However, a unique opportunity to maximize the amount of wealth that can be tax-efficiently passed to heirs will expire at the end of 2025. Furthermore, legislation could curb lifetime exemption limits even sooner. The opportunity is even more pressing because the current market downturn represents an especially advantageous time to optimize your taxable estate before markets eventually recover.

For families with substantial diversified portfolio investments, costs are an important consideration when devising an overall wealth management strategy. While there are a range of cost estimates drawn from real world examples, each family’s wealth management cost formula is different when analyzing it through a framework and analysis of four parts: the evaluation of costs; factors that can cause costs to fluctuate; key questions to ask when evaluating wealth management costs; and best practices.

U.S. tax and information reporting obligations have become an increasing concern for international families and their succession planning structures. Missed or late filings can result in steep penalties, even when no tax is due. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is alerting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to income and accounts held by U.S. citizens and green card holders (U.S. persons). To help bring delinquent individuals into compliance, the IRS offers streamlined filing compliance programs.

Residents in 43 states pay state income tax, with the highest rate being 13.3%. When combined with the top federal marginal tax rate and the net investment income tax, residents subject to the highest state income tax rate could face a total levy of 54.1% of income. As a result, those residents are interested in finding ways to mitigate the tax. An incomplete gift non-grantor trust (ING trust) could be the answer.