Publications

10 Ways to Prepare to Help Your Parents Manage Their Finances
power of attorney, healthcare proxy Matthew Erskine power of attorney, healthcare proxy Matthew Erskine

10 Ways to Prepare to Help Your Parents Manage Their Finances

10 actions you can take that help open the lines of communication and determine where you can play a role in managing your elderly parents’ finances. Asking questions about their long-term financial plans and what they've done to prepare for them will give you a better sense of how you can assist them with real estate, investments, and collections.

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Common Client Tax Planning Problems Cheat Sheet

Common Client Tax Planning Problems Cheat Sheet

Although there are many new and interesting tax planning techniques, sometimes it is the tried-and-true standards that are overlooked, that may best provide the solutions to estate and income tax problems. Here is a useful list of estate planning scenarios and possible solutions.

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Executive Order Makes Policy On Crypto Less Cryptic
Cryptocurrency, NFT, Digital Assets Matthew Erskine Cryptocurrency, NFT, Digital Assets Matthew Erskine

Executive Order Makes Policy On Crypto Less Cryptic

An executive order outlining six key priorities focused on American competitiveness, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and proactive legislation. The more proactive approach to the growth and regulation of the digital asset sector in the U.S. is an acknowledgment of the hundreds of thousands of investors looking to embrace crypto and web 3.0 in U.S. markets.

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Estate Planning For Foxes And Hedgehogs
ADHD, Estate Planning Matthew Erskine ADHD, Estate Planning Matthew Erskine

Estate Planning For Foxes And Hedgehogs

Most estate planners think like hedgehogs. They know everything about estate planning. That works well for most clients, but others need the more difficult help of a fox, especially entrepreneurs (and people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).

In other words, clients who make impulsive, sub-optimal decisions, whose choices are guided by smaller, immediate rewards instead of larger, long-term ones, and who make such errors in their planning, organization, self-regulation, and prioritizing when choosing courses of action.

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Reporting Requirements For Cryptocurrencies And NFTs Begin In 2023
Income Taxes, NFT, Tax Planning Matthew Erskine Income Taxes, NFT, Tax Planning Matthew Erskine

Reporting Requirements For Cryptocurrencies And NFTs Begin In 2023

Planning on acquiring, digital assets, here is what to expect before the end of 2022?

Crypto Exchange, will collect a Form W-9 from you (seeking your taxpayer identification number) transactions subject to the reporting will include not only selling cryptocurrencies for fiat currencies (like U.S. dollars), but also exchanging cryptocurrencies for other cryptocurrencies, Form 8300 reporting of cash transactions will presumably follow the same effective dates.

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Estate Planning For Foxes, Entrepreneurs And People With ADHD
ADHD, Entrepreneur, Small Business, Neurodiverse Matthew Erskine ADHD, Entrepreneur, Small Business, Neurodiverse Matthew Erskine

Estate Planning For Foxes, Entrepreneurs And People With ADHD

So, here are some helpful tips for you, if you are an entrepreneur or a person with ADHD and need to do some estate planning (or any type of decision making for that matter):

• Write it down: Writing your goal and your scenario down requires you to think through the process. Remember, if it is not in writing, it does not exist (at least as far as the probate court is concerned).

• Make snap decisions: In times of crisis, it is better to do something, even if it not the optimal thing, than to do nothing.

• Have a dictator: Find someone to whom you declare your goals and objectives. Give them the right to impose firm standards from the outside.

• Record what you have learned: When you do get something done, record it and learn from it, good or bad.

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People Will Pay For Comics NFTs: Why Does It Matter?
NFT, Bit Coin, Art Collections, Art Matthew Erskine NFT, Bit Coin, Art Collections, Art Matthew Erskine

People Will Pay For Comics NFTs: Why Does It Matter?

NFT collectors value the ownership and control of these digital assets, often above their market value so estate planners must utilize and take advantage of unique estate planning techniques, such as a scenario planning process, illustrating for the clients, the process used to preserve the ownership of these assets, as if we were telling a story, in which the desired ending satisfies the client’s needs.

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Climate Change is Code Red for Humanity: Is ESG Investment Code Red for Fiduciaries?

Climate Change is Code Red for Humanity: Is ESG Investment Code Red for Fiduciaries?

Confusion lies in which ESG factors in investing a fiduciary should consider. Factors that directly benefit a beneficiary of the trust are allowed, but not factors that benefit a third party based on a moral or ethical basis, and only indirectly benefit the trust beneficiaries. The assumption that an ESG investment will always outperform a non-ESG investment alone can’t justify prioritizing ESG factors. More is required when drafting trusts and other documents.

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Feeling Good? James Brown Estate Inches Toward A Resolution
Matthew Erskine Matthew Erskine

Feeling Good? James Brown Estate Inches Toward A Resolution

Could James Brown have avoided the lengthy controversy that is still going on in the South Carolina courts? Perhaps not, but helping musician clients gain a firm understanding of how their copyrights can be transferred, and who gets their termination rights, coupled with some creative planning, makes it less likely to result in long-term litigation.

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New Reporting Requirements On Cryptocurrency, Nonfungible Tokens And Other Digital Asset Transactions.
Art, NFT, Trusts, Fiduciary Matthew Erskine Art, NFT, Trusts, Fiduciary Matthew Erskine

New Reporting Requirements On Cryptocurrency, Nonfungible Tokens And Other Digital Asset Transactions.

The U.S. Senate has passed the “Build America Act of 2021” also known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill, that includes new reporting for cryptocurrency transactions and brokers of cryptocurrency…the Bill means that estate plans including any sort of digital asset in an estate will become more complicated.

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Lessons To Be Learned From Failed Celebrity Estates

Lessons To Be Learned From Failed Celebrity Estates

If you have an Estate Plan in place, this is a good time to review your existing documents to make sure they still accomplish your wishes. Here are the questions you should think about:

Does your Will match your wealth transfer wishes?

Are your assets titled correctly, and have you set up the appropriate beneficiary designation forms?

Have you established and funded all necessary Trusts? …

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Lifting The Veil: Art Deals,    The Bank Secrecy Act And The Need For Art Fiduciaries
Financial Planning, Art Deals Matthew Erskine Financial Planning, Art Deals Matthew Erskine

Lifting The Veil: Art Deals, The Bank Secrecy Act And The Need For Art Fiduciaries

The use of the art market to launder drug money; and, how the government is dealing with the issue by extending the reporting requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act to the art and antiquities market. The reporting requirement is a sharp departure from the otherwise confidential art market and will require artists and collectors to change their mindset when buying and selling art. Indeed, this change, the proposed changes in the U.S. tax laws and the emergence of non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) is prompting a sea change in how fiduciaries manage these assets during lifetimes and after death.

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