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JPMorgan Chase and Co. is being sued by a historical local church after the congregation reportedly lost millions. Christ Church Cathedral claims the investment banker’s mismanagement of two trust funds and self-dealing resulted in a $13 million loss from a trust donated by humanitarian Eli Lilly Jr., the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Can your trustee […]

Woman holding a skeleton key over white background

When the team’s owner died in March, crucial details of his wishes weren’t in a will, but in a trust agreement, which is not public information. Ever since Buffalo Bills founder Ralph Wilson, Jr. passed away, Bills fans have been unsure of their team’s future. Will the team stay in Buffalo? Unfortunately, Wilson never made […]

bills and coins

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Lou Reed was the man who famously crooned, “Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side.”  The late lead singer and guitarist of The Velvet Underground — and of course, a musician and songwriter with a successful, decades-long solo career — may have been a bit wild at […]

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While the contemplation of your eventual demise is never at the top of anyone’s list, there is satisfaction from the feeling that you have taken care of issues and provided for those you love. But unwitting mistakes can wreck your careful planning and even lead to family fighting and estrangement of the very people you […]

human chess

Identifying a successor is the first step in the planning process. Many owners of family businesses turn to an adult child, a grandchild or other relative to take over the reins. Have you thought about what will happen to your business in the future? Although it’s not an easy decision, the initial step in the […]

Finger Pressing Button on Calculator

This valuable estate-planning tool can help your beneficiaries make the most out of their inheritance but many investors do not know about these stretch provisions. This leaves retirees with the important question: Should they force their beneficiaries to stretch the inherited IRA? What is a “stretch IRA” strategy? A recent Forbes article titled “Should I […]

human miniature standing over piled coins

While minimizing taxes is certainly not the only, nor even the primary, objective of trusts, it is a major issue for trustees with a fiduciary responsibility. The variety of trusts and the rules surrounding them are many and can be complex. A recent CNBC.com article, titled “Estate planners shift gears in new tax environment,“ explains […]

Businessman with Coat and Tie Holding House

Bill and Hillary Clinton are making headlines for their use of the qualified personal residence trust or QPRT — lovingly pronounced “kew-pert” by tax geeks — to save on estate and gift taxes. According to Bloomberg News, the Clintons drafted two (Qualified Personal Residence Trusts) QPRTs in 2010, divided the ownership of their Chappaqua, N.Y. home into […]

Pad of Paper and pen

All sorts of things can change over the course of our lives—and some of those changes may affect existing estate plans. Experts recommend that you review your estate plan every few years to confirm whether it needs updating. Things change over time. New tax laws, more grandchildren, an aging estate executor … the list goes […]

Stressed Businesswoman

New studies are providing more current cost estimates. “What we found was shocking,” Mandell said. “This is a huge hit on families.” The costs to care for a child with special needs is on the rise, as reported in a new study in the medical journal JAMA Pediatric. The study found that the total lifetime […]