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Most people prefer to age in place. If you have a beautiful and gracious home that you love, why leave it? Yet common features in many homes—steeps stairs, “classic” plumbing fixtures, even hardwood floors—can actually make life less comfortable, or sometimes even dangerous, as you get older. Fortunately, there are many...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is the largest tax overhaul since the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and there are numerous and significant changes. The changes generally go into effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, and most changes affecting individuals sunset on December 31, 2025. Lawmakers have promised to extend the provisions before the ...

For a majority of impact investors, impact investing means seeking a general or specific environmental, social, or governance outcome, in addition to a financial return, from their investments. Through a collection of articles on impact investing—including how The Russell Family Foundation has charted a course to impact investing—famili...

Although the recent high-profile cases of sexual misconduct make for sensational news stories, how this issue directly affects employers often gets lost in the media chatter. Under current law, employers can be held vicariously liable (i.e. legally responsible) for the harassment of their employees by a supervisor, co-worker or even a vendor or cli...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The Act brings about immediate, sweeping changes to the federal income tax laws—especially relating to the commercial and residential real estate industries. Highlights of the Act relating generally to U.S. real estate businesses and their owners also ...

Private foundations assessing the impact of the tax reform legislation (HR1) signed into law on December 22, 2017 should look beyond the private foundation-specific proposals that were not included and assess the impact of provisions affecting all tax-exempt organizations. For some private foundations, the list of key items may include the new exci...

Congress on December 20, 2017 gave final approval to the House and Senate conference committee agreement on tax reform legislation (HR 1 or the Act). The Act will affect mergers, acquisitions and other deals and includes several areas of interest to businesses, including business tax rates, interest expense, cost recovery and immediate expensing, a...

Now that The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Act) has been signed into law, you may be wondering what this means for you and your family. The Act is broad in scope and will change the tax rules for individuals and businesses in 2018 and beyond. When thinking about the impact of the Act on you, your family, and your business, it’s important to reme...

On December 19, 2017, the House and then the Senate approved HR 1, the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” which was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The major tax overhaul includes a reduction in tax rates for most individuals, a reduction in the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, and a reduction in the tax rate on individual business i...

Estate planners have heard the list of complaints surrounding the Subtitle B, Chapter 13 of the IRC, also known as the generation-skipping transfer tax’s (GST) introduction into the Code—it is nonsense, too complicated, and frightening. The naysayers, however, are missing that the GST tax is rich and nuanced in its applications—bu...

Investors focus on the yield curve with good reason—an inverted curve has historically led to recession and eventual stock market losses. However, these stock market declines take time to materialize, suggesting that an inverted yield curve is less a “predictor” of stock market declines than a challenge to economic functioning. Th...

The Tax Reform and Jobs Act was signed into law on December 22, 2017. A side-by-side comparison between the old law and the new law highlights the key changes, including the difference between the individual rates, deductions, exemptions, and effective dates.

Low inflation, subdued global growth, and historically elevated stock valuations are the realities we believe your investment portfolios face over the next five years. Investors can position their portfolios for the long-term with these six key themes in mind: valuation superstructure, entrenched growth, stuckflation, monetary godot, populist catha...

Depending on where you live, your philosophy on fiscal policy and what your sources of income are, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could be viewed as a gift or a lump of coal. No matter how you see it, there is a short window of time for the ultra high-net-worth individuals and families to plan for its effects.

An IRS advisory published in late December could prevent individuals from deducting property tax prepayments in 2017. According to the advisory, taxpayers can deduct a property tax prepayment in 2017 depending on whether the tax was both assessed and paid before January 1, 2018. Prepayments of anticipated real property taxes that have not been asse...