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Whether it be a family member, trusted friend, or professional advisor, whom you pick as a trustee matters. An ideal trustee will follow through on the objectives outlined during your lifetime, your spouse’s lifetime, and through the trust’s ultimate disposition. When choosing the right trustee, it is important to explore the key criter...

You have too much at stake to be caught unprepared, and your family is too important to be left in the lurch by an estate plan you didn’t realize that you had outgrown. If it has been a while since you have looked at your estate planning and settlement documents, it is time to perform a stress-test on your plan to ensure that none of the key ...

By temporarily increasing the federal exemption from $5.5 million to $11.18 million for the gift, estate and generation-skipping taxes, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Act”) has created estate tax and income tax planning opportunities as well as traps for the unwary. In this multipart series, we explore all of these in depth. Fi...

Reviewing the changes to the Tax Reform law from the lens of tax-efficient giving, it's clear it created some philanthropic winners and losers for the next few years. With the elimination of the phase-out of itemized deductions, donors who itemize can take advantage of the full amount of their charitable gifts, subject to Adjusted Gross Income ...

Despite the easing of estate taxes on many taxpayers, many family-held businesses continue to be burdened with large potential transfer taxes. Using a real-life story of one family business, we show how the family successfully addressed this problem. While the names have been changed, and the figures and structure have been simplified, the example ...

One of the most significant hurdles in structuring a suitable debt workout or restructuring arrangement between a lender and a borrower involves the negative impact of U.S. income taxes on the borrower, particularly if the partners have conflicting objectives in terms of their tax position. Various options are available to partners when making elec...

Becoming a great beneficiary starts with having a great trustee. If a trustee devotes the majority of his or her time to administrative matters and managing investments, the wealth distribution process often gets the least attention when it ideally deserves the most. To some trustees, the distribution process may simply seem like a meeting with a b...

Changes in the federal tax laws have provided a renewed focus on state income taxes and strategies available to minimize these taxes. While personal trusts have been used most commonly as estate and gift tax planning tools, they now have increased importance as vehicles for minimizing a family’s federal and state income tax liability. If you ...

For private wealth clients, the consideration of tax liabilities adds another wrinkle to already complex investment decisions. It is vital for high-net-worth individuals and families to weigh the tax implications of any changes to their portfolio as taxes can erode gains, hindering their investments’ ability to meet their financial objectives...

1031 Exchange, commonly known as like-kind exchange, can be a smart tax strategy for business owners who also own or invest in real estate. Understanding seven basic fundamentals of a 1031 exchange will make you more informed to know if a 1031 strategy will fit into your overall tax and real estate plans. Watch the short video and learn the fundame...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that a ballot initiative that would have had Bay Staters vote this November to raise the state income on its wealthiest residents is unconstitutional. The Fair Share Amendment proposal, dubbed by some the “Millionaire's Tax,” will no longer appear on the November ballot. For la...

Tax reform has created major changes and opportunities for high-net-worth taxpayers, particularly those who are real estate investors and developers. The creation of the Internal Revenue Code section 199A brings a new, advantageous deduction to those in the real estate business. For real estate owners, investors, and developers, the impacts are sig...

With the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in late 2017, virtually all areas of federal tax law saw sweeping changes. As a business owner, it’s particularly important to understand how these changes can work to your advantage as you consider your tax planning under today’s new laws. Five strategies—including restructuring your ...

Federal tax reform has potentially and perhaps unexpectedly increased the tax liability for families by destroying the deduction for investment expenses. However, the recent United States Tax Court decision on the Lender Management case may provide an opportunity for family offices to maintain deductibility for legitimate business expenses under th...

While laws in the United States generally allow trust property to be protected from the creditors of beneficiaries, there has traditionally been an exception to these protections where property in a trust is derived from a beneficiary’s own contributions to the trust. In rejecting this traditional rule, some states have modernized their laws,...