Early in my career I remember a couple talking about how brilliant their attorney was for suggesting that they structure their estate plan to provide for a series of distributions over time as opposed to providing access all at once to their children. Even back then, I knew that this…
Author: Mark Shiller
Mark Shiller
Mark initiated this blog due to his passion in assisting and equipping families to manage their wealth and their families well.
This is the fourth in a series of posts regarding the appointment of trustees. Links to the other posts are found below. Today we tackle what I think is the most challenging, and important, time-frame with respect to trusts and trustees — the time between a beneficiary’s minority and reaching…
This is the third in a series of posts on Who Should Be Trustee? For part 1, please click here, and for part two, click here. Many, although I’m not sure that it’s most, parents of minor children doing their estate planning the first time come in with the notion that…
At a recent conference I was asked to speak at, a discussion arose regarding how to convince the Senior Generation business owner to turn over control to the Next Generation son or daughter in the business. This is not an uncommon discussion in the financial services world — and for…
This past week I found myself wrestling with how to respond to certain disappointments (for clarity, and given the focus of this blog to make sure my family doesn’t feel the need to figure out what I think they did or didn’t do, these were not disappointments within my family). …
“So how do you actually help people with this stuff?” I’ve received quite a few of these types of questions recently. While it’s nice to get the questions, the fact that they exist probably means I haven’t done a good enough job of laying out how people can pursue solutions…
What impact does rewarding good character have on character itself? Did the Pickens family have it figured out over 75 years ago?
Last month I attended the Heckerling Institute — considered by many to be the premiere conference focused on estate planning in the United States. It’s a very well-attended conference due to the breadth and depth of the seminars and materials presented. Consequently, it’s also well attended by financial institutions, accounting…
Let me start off by saying that I am posting on a subject that I know requires additional thought. Consequently, your input and perspective on the below would be particularly appreciated — especially as I suspect it might be a controversial topic in the financial services world. So with that…
It wasn’t that long ago that I published a post on how to approach the question, How Much is Enough? Since that time, though, I’ve come to some conclusions about the failings associated with that question — to the point that I think I just might hate the question. Let…