There are Family Offices, and There are Family Offices

As anyone who’s read my profile knows and as I’ve stated elsewhere on this blog, I once wrote for Bloomberg–for three Bloomberg magazines, in fact. One of them was Bloomberg Wealth Manager, which was later sold and then sold again. I continued to write for the magazine in all its iterations. The other day, I stumbled […]

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Just Say So

Sometimes feel confused? Wonder why the left hand can’t understand what the right hand is supposed to be doing? Imagine what your family will feel like the day after you’ve passed on to the great beyond, then think about how a well-drafted trust might clear things up for them. I’ve written more than a few […]

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Quote for the Day

“Family business succession planning is the cornerstone of any successful family business owner’s estate plan. As is often the case, however, planning for the inter-generational transfer of ownership and control of the business becomes complicated by the intra-generational conflicts of the business owner’s heirs. These onflicts among members of the second generation, if severe enough, can render the […]

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Conservation Easements: Go Big or Go Home

Briefly, creating a conservation easement can allow you to receive good by doing good. Consider creating one on your  property to protect “natural, scenic, or open space values of [that] real property, assuring its availability for agricultural, forest, recreational or open space use, protecting natural resources, maintaining or enhancing air or water quality, or preserving the […]

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Quote for the Day

On the impact of the business structure of a farm on federal farm payment limitations: The structuring question also influences eligibility for the federal farm program payment limitation. Under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act, of 1996 and earlier legislation, each “person” under one or more production flexibility contracts is eligible for a […]

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A “True” Story Retold

As anyone who’s read my profile knows, I once wrote for Bloomberg–for three Bloomberg magazines, in fact. One of them was Bloomberg Wealth Manager, which was later sold and then sold again. I continued to write for the magazine in all its iterations. The other day, I stumbled upon a list of some of my […]

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Quote for the Day

Actually, this is not a quote but a paraphrase of some information I found the other day on the Internet. Can’t remember the source–I think I may have found it on Farm Bureau website and repeated in a variety of other places, including a Nationwide Insurance brochure I discovered online. With that, this: Almost 97% […]

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Some Things I Learned Answering Questions on a Forum for Asking Legal Questions

So I sometimes forget that everybody’s smart, just on different subjects. For example, I don’t know much about physics. My teachers tried, but my head could only hold so much gravity and speed of light and such. Well, today I was online in an online forum where non-lawyers posed legal questions to attorneys. These were […]

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