Many clients I work with have done a little bit of research about estate administration before we meet. Often, they are surprisingly focused on “avoiding probate.” This is such a common part of the client mind map that I think it’s worth examining myths and realities of avoiding probate in Kentucky. Myth: Probate is expensive, so […]
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what a “Corporate Event” at Humana might mean for Louisville. A rosy analysis I’ve heard suggests that Aetna might buy Humana, and then move its headquarters here. We’d all love that outcome (sorry, Hartford). Other Humana transactions may have collateral effects on our city that are, to put it […]
Several months ago I read Cut Adrift: Families in Insecure Times by Marianne Cooper, a Stanford sociologist. Cooper’s chapters on the extremely professionally successful upper middle class and their project of “doing security” were particularly interesting. These families were operating an increasingly unstable career and social environment, and devoted tremendous energy to enhancing their own financial security. […]
Last week, Business First of Louisville published a report and slideshow on the top 25 largest residential real estate transactions of the first quarter of 2015 in Jefferson County. It might surprise you to know that a home bought for $646,000 was pricey enough to make the first quarter slideshow. The most expensive home on […]
This week I’ve been reading Claire Tomalin’s Jane Austen: A Life. That’s risky for me to admit, as surveys show the female/male ratio of “Janeites” runs about 25:1. Mockery from readers may be unavoidable, and even deserved. I think one of the most interesting aspects of Tomalin’s biography is how it shows the Austens and […]
Broadly speaking, I have observed Upper Class families use three types of inheritance strategies: deferral, ad hoc gifts, and income streams. Deferral is a traditional strategy: pay to raise and educate your child, and then give them not very much (if anything) until they inherit as your survivor. Ad hoc gifts are transfers for a […]
Although class is discussed frequently and openly in Britain, it makes many of us on this side of the Pond uncomfortable. Even so, class in America has been covered humorously by Paul Fussell, and with great color and insight by the New York Times. Because I am a trust and estates lawyer, my practice offers a fascinating […]
The expense of college for children and grandchildren is a troubling issue for almost all of my clients. I think this is because at an instinctual level, long before crunching any numbers, clients know what the charts below show: college costs have gone truly exponential in the last one and a half generations, far outstripping increases […]
In the late 60s and early 70s at Bing Nursery School on Stanford’s campus, Walter Mischel conducted the famous “Marshmallow Experiment” on delayed gratification. Preschoolers were offered a choice between one marshmallow or cookie right away, or two if they waited about 15 minutes. When researchers tracked down study participants as adults, they found that the […]
If you have been working since the late ‘90s, you have probably collected some great stories about exercising stock options and other equity-based compensation. Some are unqualified success stories, like the time my college roommate’s father pulled up outside the college dorm in a brand-new zippy BMW convertible (top down, naturally), and told us to […]
Noncompetition agreements are a common fact of life for many of the mid- and senior-level executives I represent in estate planning, and for business owner clients with employees. Because noncompetes are such important features of the life cycle estate and financial planning landscape, I sat down with my colleague Rebecca Weis to learn more about […]
In my practice, I have found that a majority of my clients who create significant wealth do so through ownership of a private business or a concentrated stock position in a publicly traded company. What that means for you is that if you haven’t yet started a business or taken an ownership position in one, […]