2019: New Year, New (Financial) You

There is no better time than the first few months of the year to utilize the momentum of the season to ensure your financial health is given proper attention. To kick off the process, you must first take a moment to reflect on 2018 to determine what is working and what needs attention. From there, … Continued

Can You Trust Your Trustee?

In the simplest of terms, a trust is a financial arrangement that allows another person, known as the trustee, to hold assets for the well-being of a beneficiary. There are many benefits to creating a trust: privacy, control, legacy protection and tax savings. Once the trust has been created and funded, it is the trustee’s … Continued

Special Needs Families: Now ABLE to Save

When parents are asked what they want for their children in life, the answers you are most likely to hear are “to be happy and to be self-sufficient”. While there is no clear path to these goals for anyone, there are inherently more challenges facing children with special needs. Covering even the basics like healthcare … Continued

Charitable Vehicle Options for High Income Years

For entrepreneurs and major stakeholders of Silicon Valley companies, a liquidity event puts in motion a series of complex and timely actions that investors must navigate, including potentially large tax bills to manage. For the philanthropically minded, one related tax-saving strategy worth exploring is the funding of a charitable vehicle. There are a handful of … Continued

Domestic Asset Protection Trusts – A Shield Against Litigation

Silicon Valley is home to countless individuals who have created significant wealth through grit and ingenuity; but it is also located in California, a notoriously litigious state. Diversifying one’s concentrated wealth in a single company stock into a well-allocated portfolio can help alleviate market risk, but how does one shield hard-earned money against the various … Continued

Choosing the Right Executor Part 2: Breaking Down the Options

In Part One of this series, we explored the six key qualities and characteristics to consider when selecting the executor and successor trustee for your estate. In Part Two of this series, we will next explore the various types of executors and successor trustees available. You may be surrounded by loved ones and have many … Continued

Choosing the Right Executor Part 1: Key Characteristics to Consider

One critical component of a solid estate plan is the named successor trustee(s) and executor(s). This is the person (or people) who will safe-guard and carry out your wishes at death. Every situation is different and there is no one-size-fits-all solution, however there are some universal considerations that may help you organize your search for … Continued

Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets

As our lives are increasingly spent online from bill pay, to email and blogs to Facebook and Instagram, have you thought about what happens to your digital assets when you die? How will your successor trustee, executor or loved ones gain access to important records or treasured photographs stored in a vault in the cloud? … Continued