QUESTION: I want to set up an irrevocable trust to take care of my needs as I age, and I need to pick a trustee. What should I consider? ANSWER: A trustee has many responsibilities, one of which is making distributions from the trust to you, the beneficiary. Many people want their children or a…
QUESTION: I have a big retirement fund, so why don’t I feel secure now that I’m in retirement? ANSWER: Retirement can be difficult for productive people who have been saving and investing most of their lives. Taking money out of savings, instead of putting it in, feels irresponsible. It can take several years to get…
The taxpayers won this one—at least in North Carolina. That was the result of a rare unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 21, 2019, that rejected North Carolina’s claim that it can tax the undistributed income from a non-grantor trust based in another state if the beneficiary is a North Carolina resident. A New…
Now that the federal deduction for state and local taxes is gone, should I consider changing residency from my high income-tax state to one with lower or no state taxes?
The Opportunity Zone investment program ushered in by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provides an unprecedented ability to reduce capital gains taxes. If an investor realizes and rolls a capital gain into a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) this year and holds the investment for 10 years, he or she gets a step-up in…
Recently, the AMG team was asked by a client to address a recently published opinion article by Robert J. Samuelson of the Washington Post titled “Has The Next Bubble Arrived?” The article references the work of Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute and his warning “that the economy might be on the edge of a…
QUESTION: Can you beat the S&P 500 and other top index funds? ANSWER: It depends on the time frame. While it’s possible to outperform the S&P, research shows that the outperformance will be lumpy with some significant periods of underperformance. To understand why, here is a brief history lesson. Decades ago Wall Street spread the…
Investing in last year’s hot stocks, indexes or managers is a sure way of underachieving in tomorrow’s financial markets. Exceptions exist, but academic studies verify this time and again. So what is the secret to better investment performance? Don’t invest for the short run, and anticipate the future. We at AMG spend considerable time and…
QUESTION: I’m getting married again, but my kids are worried it will adversely affect their inheritances. What should I do? ANSWER: Before you do anything, take a moment and remember that it is your wealth before it becomes their inheritance, and while it is important to communicate your decisions and priorities to your family, it…
Since the Great Recession, American banks have been squeezed by failures, mergers and now a wave of lenders making loans only via the Internet. The number of banks has fallen from 7,279 in 2007 to less than 5,000 today. Community banks, those with less than $10 billion in assets, have been hardest hit, but those…
