In a way, the pressure of real-time information is polarizing - the hard-working people are becoming harder to replace, while slackers and perhaps less knowledgeable people are just not needed. (more…)
By Jeff Brooks
Something’s wrong with fundraising. At least, that’s one conclusion you could draw from a study reported in the Wall Street Journal Wealth Report blog at Why the Rich Give to Charity.
The survey, by the Center on Philanthropy and Bank of America, asked people with incomes of $200,000 or more or a net worth of $1 million-plus, about their motivations for giving to charity. Here’s the key finding: (more…)
By Hannah Shaw
Developing a comprehensive estate plan with an experienced legal professional can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Not having an estate plan in place and operational at the time of death can cost both time and money in the form of unnecessary complications and taxes for the estate’s heirs. (more…)
By Hannah Shaw Grow, Russ Alan Prince
Despite the wide appeal of philanthropy, most of the wealthy don’t capture the benefits of planned charitable gifts.
… In an effort to understand how actively the wealthy are involved in the stages of the giving process, we surveyed 446 individuals with a net worth of $5 million or more and a history of giving at least $50,000 a year to non-profit organizations. (more…)
Here is a “must” read article about how working with charities and creating lasting situations of wealth is a “huge” opportunity. Here is the article “Donors Turning to Wealth Advisors”
Here is the closing comment: …My message to them will be that wealth advisors do not represent the enemy, but most of them need a lot of help to climb the philanthropy learning curve. It may not be the obligation of the nonprofit community to educate wealth advisors, but I think there is a huge opportunity available to those nonprofits that see the shift that is occurring and get out in front of the curve by working hard to educate the financial crowd.
November 24, 2008
San Francisco Federal Court Halts Sales of Tax Schemes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 24, 2008
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
Walnut Creek, Calif., Firm Allegedly Helped Customers Avoid Tax on More Than $25 Million Through Insurance and IRA Scheme Download the IRS lawsuit
WASHINGTON - A San Francisco federal judge has ordered Edwin Lichtig III and his Walnut Creek, Calif.-based firm, GSL Advisory Solutions, to stop promoting unlawful tax schemes, the Justice Department announced today. The defendants agreed to the permanent injunction order without admitting the government’s allegations against them. The United States sued Lichtig and GSL alleging that they promoted tax fraud schemes involving Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) that helped customers improperly avoid federal income tax on more than $25 million. (more…)
Jeanie Wyatt
The government’s massive economic package (the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act) passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in October, contained many provisions designed to help or to stimulate the economy in one way or another. The jury will be out for quite a while on how effective a number of those “fixes” will be in the long run.There was one good provision worth mentioning, which hopefully no one will complain about. (Right now there are so many acronyms being bantered around that you don’t want this one to be lost in the shuffle.) (more…)