Family Limited Partnerships: How Family Limited Partnerships Work in Estate Planning
Families with substantial businesses, investment portfolios or real estate often face two competing estate-planning objectives: transferring wealth to the next generation while maintaining an organized system for managing the family’s assets. A Family Limited Partnership (FLP) can address that tension by separating management and control from economic ownership. Senior family members may retain management rights […]
Qualified Personal Residence Trusts: How Homeowners Can Reduce Estate Tax Exposure While Retaining the Right to Live in Their Home
A valuable home may be one of the largest assets in an estate, but homeowners often want to transfer future appreciation to their heirs without giving up the ability to live in the property today. A qualified personal residence trust (QPRT) is a specialized estate-planning structure designed around that tension. A QPRT allows a homeowner […]
Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts: How Couples Can Balance Estate Tax Planning and Lifetime Access
A married couple can transfer wealth during life and still preserve a degree of financial flexibility for the family. That combination is one reason Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts, commonly called SLATs, remain an important estate-planning strategy. For 2026, the federal estate-tax basic exclusion amount is $15 million per person. That means many families will not […]
Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts: How Wealthy Families Can Transfer Assets While Retaining Income
How can a wealthy individual transfer future appreciation to heirs while retaining an income stream from the transferred assets for a defined period? That question sits at the center of grantor retained annuity trusts, or GRATs. A GRAT is an irrevocable trust in which the grantor transfers assets while retaining a qualified annuity interest for […]
The Billionaire Tax Debate Is Going National: What It Could Mean for Investors
For decades, the U.S. tax system has largely focused on income and gains that become taxable when assets are sold. The emerging billionaire tax debate asks a different question: should governments also tax wealth itself, or gains on assets before those assets are sold? That distinction matters because much of the wealth held by billionaires […]
The NYC Pied-à-Terre Tax: How New Rules Are Changing the Economics of Luxury Second Homes
A luxury second home in New York City has always carried costs beyond its purchase price. Owners have had to account for property taxes, insurance, maintenance, financing, building charges and the opportunity cost of tying up capital. Now, for certain high-value properties that are not primary residences, the NYC pied-à-terre tax adds another recurring expense […]
Opportunity Zones After the 2025 Tax Changes: What Investors Need to Know in 2026
The Opportunity Zone program is no longer simply approaching the end of its original tax timeline. The 2025 tax law fundamentally changed that trajectory, creating a permanent framework while leaving Opportunity Zones 2026 as an important transition year for investors. The changes also establish a new cycle of Opportunity Zone designations beginning January 1, 2027. […]
Hiring Remote Employees Across States: Tax Basics for Business Owners
A company can hire an employee hundreds or thousands of miles away without opening another office but the tax and compliance consequences can still follow the employee’s work location. For businesses building distributed teams, remote employee state taxes can become an operational issue long before a company considers opening a physical branch. The key question […]
QSBS for Investors: How Section 1202 Can Increase the After-Tax Value of Startup Equity
A startup investment can produce the same headline gain for two investors but leave them with very different amounts of wealth after taxes. That is why QSBS for investors deserves attention before an investment is made, not only when a company is preparing for an exit. Section 1202 of the U.S. tax code can allow […]
Roth IRA Tax: How It Works and Why It Matters for Your Future
Image source Roth IRA Tax Offers a Different Approach to Retirement Savings When planning for retirement, taxes can have a major impact on how much money you actually keep. One option that often stands out is the Roth IRA tax structure, which works differently from many traditional accounts. Instead of getting a tax break today, […]
