Advisors take note: Baby Boomers and their parents need to do some serious talking. According to a new study, Americans in their 70s are more at ease talking about estate-planning issues than people in their children's generation are. This is the...

I have not always been an advocate of corporate trustees. Quite the contrary. I used to give a standard speech when my clients were wondering whom to name as a trustee. You could appoint a corporate trustee, I'd tell them. But keep in mind that...

While modern corporations practice the art of risk management, this is not common among family enterprises, not even the most sophisticated. While wealth owners embrace formalized risk management, the focus of that endeavor tends to be on a single...

Many wealthy families are tempted to convert their single-family offices (SFOs) into a multi-family office (MFOs). The hope is that sharing their office services with other high-net-worth families will help defray costs and retain professional...

Management's highest priority is profitability1 and profits depend mostly on pricing2, according to two recent studies of the multi-family office industry. Good pricing is principally a function of the internal costs of labor, capital, and...

In the 1880s, early in John Singer Sargent's career, he confronted a dilemma when painting children's portraits for wealthy English patrons. The artist, born in Italy to American parents, had studied art in Paris then practiced in France. But his...

Estate planners live in uncertainty. Historically, the strongest selling point for their services has been helping clients minimize estate taxes. But with increases in the estate tax exemption and the possible outright repeal of the estate tax...