Private equity niches to consider for your client’s retirement portfolio. [ more... ]

Various strategies can help the ultra-affluent manage their concentrated stock positions.  
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Private equity firms have traditionally focused on the super-rich, leaving few options for other wealthy investors. [ more... ]

In a decision likely to affect millions of trusts and their beneficiaries, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that trust investment advisory fees are subject to the 2% floor for miscellaneous itemized deductions. This decision could impact the tax deductibility of many common trust and estate expenses, thereby increasing the overall costs for managing large estates and trusts. It may also force trustees, accountants, attorneys, financial advisors and family offices to change their cost reporting and allocation procedures. [ more... ]

A few months ago we ran a story about the relationship between wealth and investment products based on research conducted by Prince & Associates Inc. “Eye Of The Beholder,” Aug/Sep 2007). In it we noted that as wealth increases the interest in mutual funds declines. As evidence, 16% of investors with a net worth of between $1 million and $5 million expressed interest in funds while none of the investors with net worths in excess of $10 million did. Products with much higher levels of interest among the affluent were more tailored vehicles such as separate accounts, and higher-octane options like hedge funds.
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Wealthy individuals interested in the fast-growing sport of reining now can invest in their passion through syndicates, which have been much more common in the racing world but are increasingly being used for other riding disciplines like eventing and show jumping.
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While having a substantial portfolio of stocks and bonds might be great for your retirement, giving you a feeling that you have enough assets to protect you throughout your lifetime, it might not be the best way to pass wealth on to the next generation. In fact, the wealthiest families in America didn’t just pass on a trust full of stocks, CDs and bonds to their children. They passed on multiple types of assets, including real estate, venture capital and an interest in the family business— on top of a portfolio of stocks and bonds. [ more... ]

After the tumultuous events of 2007, one might think that advisors to affluent investors and their clients should be looking at 2008 with a high degree of caution and a measured amount of risk aversion. One probably should think again. [ more... ]

You hear the stories. Ken Brenner, CEO of the Private Bank of the Peninsula in Palo Alto, Calif., had a friend who plunked $25,000 of seed money into a start-up that blossomed into a software giant. "At one point his stock was worth $7 million," says Brenner. [ more... ]

When investors and advisors hear the term "arbitrage" they usually think of risk-free profit. True arbitrage, however, is frequently inaccessible to the average investor. Opportunities created by inefficiencies and temporary mispricing usually do not last long. Sophisticated computer trading models, "real time" information exchange and the ability of institutional investors to deploy millions of dollars almost instantly prevent most arbitrage situations from existing for more than a few seconds. Other trading strategies that have come to be called "arbitrage" (e.g., merger arbitrage) are not arbitrage at all because there is risk embedded in the transaction. [ more... ]