Publications
Navigating The Evolving US Estate Planning Landscape
Estate planning has evolved into a vibrant field marked by substantial transformations in recent years. These changes are propelled by updates in legislation, technological advancements, and shifts in societal norms. As a trust and estates attorney, I closely monitor these trends and understand the significance of staying abreast to offer superior service to my clients. Here are the key topics in contemporary estate planning and the advantages of engaging with either large or boutique law firms.
Navigating the Transfer of Ownership and Control
Understanding trusts, family limited partnerships and the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’: Transferring Ownership and Control Through Trusts and FLPs, Advantages of Trusts and FLPs.
Why Having A Chief Of Staff For A Family Business Helps Avoid Disasters
The whole blame nor the whole praise for the failure or success of family businesses lies with the leadership or the collective family business organization. Leadership must understand that there are flaws within the family business organization; and, a leader is willing to undertake the institutional risks to fix those flaws.
Many times it requires more than just an Alpha leader but also a Beta leader, or a chief of staff from outside the organization, such as lawyer , accountant or other professional who is able to execute on the changes as they are needed
New Report On Ownership And Professional Management Of Family Enterprises
Estate planning is all about strategy, advocacy and marshalling both financial resources and competent management resources. There is a great deal of value in this report, especially for estate planning advice for both present and future owners of family enterprises.
Family Business Sanity Check
Tactics To Reduce Your Capital Gains Tax And Your Estate Tax
To those who have highly appreciated assets and expect their estates to exceed $3.5 million, is to be better educated about these tactics and their advantages and disadvantages especially with the turbulent environment for tax laws in the coming years.
What Do You Do When The Family CEO Suffers From Dementia?
The result of such strategic planning by the family, and advised by their professionals, is that the Family always has a “Plan B” to deal with difficult situations, and understand the time and costs needed to implement that Plan B if something like mental illness does strike. Without those strategic options, the family is thrown back onto the tactics available through the courts that may be surprisingly costly and time-consuming.
The Tragedy Of The Commons: How A Life Crisis Effects Family Wealth
“Strategic planning, governance, and business processes take a back seat to the immediacy of the leader’s life crisis and how the crisis will be managed, ignored, or denied by the leader and the stakeholders in the organization. Response to the crisis largely determines the future and well-being of the business and the family.” -Steven S. Rolfe, MD
In most cases, a family leader plays the role of the governor of the engine that is the family wealth. The leader has the personal authority to set agendas and make decisions between competing demands on the common resources of the family. So long as they are able to act in such a way, disputes do not rise to the level of threatening the viability of the family enterprise. In Systems Dynamics there is a name for this situation, The Tragedy of the Commons.
FFI: Family Offices and Artwork: Mitigating the risks
Families that use family office services expect family office professionals to help them mitigate risks, both to investments and to concentrated illiquid holdings, such as real estate or closely-held businesses. What sometimes goes overlooked, however, is how to mitigate the risks of ownership of artworks, numismatics, jewelry, cars, and other collectibles. Risk mitigation for these treasures begins with documenting what the client has, aggregating the individual items into collections, and beginning the management of the items as a collection.