Kentucky Estates: articles on trusts and estates in culture
It was exciting and gratifying last weekend when the New York Times published a really excellent article by Jeffrey J. Selingo in its “Education Life” section that wove together several themes we’ve written on during the last two years and cited many of the same sources you’ll find in our life cycle planning bibilography. I encourage you […]
Support, engagement, and partnership from clients and friends of Ruml PLC has been nothing short of extraordinary during the firm’s first 6 months – thank you! We’re very pleased to be in a position to give back by sponsoring the 10th Annual Derby Divas event supporting the Norton Healthcare Foundation. It will be held at Rodes for […]
My practice, and the practices of most colleagues and friends who are also trust and estate attorneys, has become busier than any of us ever expected after the 2010 tax act made high estate tax exemptions an (allegedly) permanent part of the landscape. I think one issue, more than any other, has been the key […]
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 […]
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 announcement this week of the closure of Sweet Briar College after the end of this semester was significant and sad news. Sweet Briar was pressured by declining enrollment and a deterioration in pricing power. The board’s decision to yield to this trend while the college still has a large endowment to help fund an […]
I believe effective life cycle estate and financial planning is anchored in the Quadrant of Facts, Forecasts, Life Stages, and Unexpected Events. Over the past several weeks, ten posts covered a lot of territory about Facts and Forecasts. This is a pivot point at which we begin exploring planning issues in the first of several Life […]
We live in a world of nearly infinite, nearly free information. That includes financial information, commentary, journalism, and forecasts. Among this clutter, it can be very hard to decide what deserves attention, what’s worthwhile, and what to believe. Print, television, and Internet journalism thrives on readers and viewers. In a media landscape that is so […]
Spy Game (2001) is all about retirement: Nathan Muir’s last day at work at the CIA. Muir (Robert Redford) has a protege, Bishop (Brad Pitt), who’s been thrown into a very unpleasant prison in coastal China. Muir calls his broker and tells him to sell all of his assets, raising $282,000 to bribe a Chinese official […]
The Right Stuff (1983) is a movie that’s begun to be fully appreciated only recently. One of its best scenes is when the iconic test pilot Chuck Yeager (played by Sam Shepard) takes a very dangerous flight in an NF-104 Starfighter in December 1963, attempting to break the world altitude record. At the edge of space above the […]
I think “budgets” are the reason many more people don’t have a sensible strategy for reaching their financial goals. The word “budget” creates obstacles in two ways. First, budgets imply choices, tradeoffs, and the unpleasant word “no.” Second, most people lack even half the clarity about their spending that’s required to make a reasonably accurate budget. Without good […]
It’s unclear whether Auguste Comte really said that “demography is destiny,” but you can and should use demographic data to make better estate and financial planning decisions. As we’ve noted, an estate plan often represents a set of predictions about a family’s future, predictions that will be improved when the plan considers the family’s Longevity Distribution. Your […]