Skip the Surtax: A Tax-Saving Strategy for CRTs
Daniel B. Eagan, Steve Schilling and Tara Thompson Popernik A special provision buried deep in a recent set of proposed US Treasury regulations opens the door for charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) to protect gains from being subject to next year’s 3.8% Medicare surtax. Here’s how CRTs can reduce their beneficiaries’ tax burden.
read moreWhat Did You Learn in 2012?
In 2012, investors worried about the future of the euro, the US fiscal cliff and the emerging-market slowdown…yet stocks still climbed higher. What lessons should we learn from 2012? We’d suggest four key takeaways.
read moreTo Wait or Not to Wait? That Is the Charitable Gifting Question
Daniel B. Eagan and Brian Wodar The tax impact of delaying a charitable gift by just a couple of weeks (until 2013) could be large, but it may not be positive for US taxpayers.
read moreTAG Could Be Tagged in Fiscal-Cliff Negotiations
Doug Peebles, Jon Denfeld and Ed Dombrowski Caught up in the wrangling over the US fiscal cliff is a little-publicized program that could have big implications for short-term investors and bond yields if the program expires on December 31. If the Transaction Account Guarantee (TAG) program ends, huge sums of money may start looking for a new [...]
read moreA Municipal Bond Cliffhanger
Municipal bonds are popular because the interest they pay is exempt from federal taxation. But in its search for solutions to the fiscal cliff, the US federal government is looking under every rock for more revenue sources. This could put muni bonds’ tax-exempt status at risk.
read moreTomato, Tomahto: Why Obama, Simpson-Bowles and Others Miss the Point on Munis
When it comes to eliminating or modifying the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds, everyone seems to have an opinion these days.
read moreBuy and Hold Is Dead…Long Live Buy and Hold
It seems that rumors of the death of long-term equity investing have been greatly exaggerated.
read moreDon’t Let Abuses Overshadow Value of 10b5-1 Plans
Daniel B. Eagan and Richard L.N. Weaver A recent Wall Street Journal article implied that some US executives have manipulated 10b5-1 programs to boost gains or reduce losses when trading company stock. Even if these abuses did occur, we think they shouldn’t obscure the value of 10b5-1 programs implemented in good faith.
read moreWho’s Afraid of the Fiscal Cliff?
Warnings about the fiscal cliff have saturated the US public debate. But consumers are still spending, even though they face huge potential tax hikes, while companies are being very cautious—even though they have relatively little to lose.
read moreProfit from Your Premium Bonds
When investors see opportunity, we believe they should actively reposition their municipal bond portfolios to take advantage. Often, this requires selling some existing holdings. Today, investors are asking us: Why do you recommend I sell my long-term bonds? They’re yielding 5%. Won’t selling them reduce my potential returns?
read moreArchives by Month:
- December 2012 (16)
- December 2011 (12)
- November 2012 (8)
- November 2011 (14)
- October 2012 (20)
- October 2011 (17)
- September 2012 (10)
- August 2012 (17)
- July 2012 (15)
- June 2012 (16)
- May 2013 (6)
- May 2012 (13)
- April 2013 (10)
- April 2012 (8)
- March 2013 (23)
- March 2012 (12)
- February 2013 (19)
- February 2012 (10)
- January 2013 (20)
- January 2012 (11)