What is Family Governance & Education? Family governance and education are two key and related components of an effective family office. They serve as the foundation for responsible stewardship of wealth, preservation of family values, and transmission of wealth from one generation to the next. These services help ensure that families flourish across generations. Failure […]
Benjamin Walter
Revocable Living Trusts: What to Know
What Do Revocable Living Trusts Do? A revocable living trust (RLT) allows individuals to avoid probate and plan for incapacity. By itself, a revocable living trust does not provide asset protection or estate tax benefits. However, revocable living trusts can serve as the foundation for an estate plan that uses these irrevocable trusts. Trusts generally […]
Building a Positive Wealth Identity
“The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.” –Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.5 Introduction What is the feeling that you most associate with the word “money”–excitement, fear, anxiety, or something else? Does money make you happy? […]
How to Avoid 4 Estate Planning Pitfalls
In 1973, the artist Pablo Picasso died with an estate worth $100-$250M and no estate plan. The ensuing battle over his estate lasted six years and cost $30M. This was good for lawyers and not so good for Picasso’s descendants! Unfortunately, Picasso’s estate is just one example of a common problem. Many people either do […]
9 Ways to Build “Heroic Wealth”
How do you measure your wealth? Most of us immediately think about bank accounts, investments, or real estate. Thinking more broadly, we might include skills we’ve acquired, a social network, and health. In fact, all of these are equally valid definitions of wealth. Wealth is really what makes us flourish as human beings. That includes […]
The Wyoming Private Family Trust Company
Families have a variety of options when they select a trustee to administer their trusts. There are two traditional options: an institutional trustee, such as a trust company, or an individual trustee, such as a family member or trusted advisor. In either case, these traditional trustees may not meet all of a family’s unique goals […]
Private Client Services: Family Office Quarterback
The term “family office” is hard to define because it appears in so many different forms. There’s a well-known saying, “Once you’ve seen one family office, you’ve only seen one.” Some family offices are comprised of nothing more than a financial advisor. This advisor coordinates services with external tax experts, insurance providers, bankers, brokers, and perhaps […]