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By LAUREN FOSTER | Barrons It’s easy for trustees to botch their roles. Here’s how to avoid the common pitfalls. Trust and estate planning often comes down to three questions: Who gets what? How do you minimize taxes? And, once a trust has been set up, who is in control? Unfortunately, it’s easy for a family to bungle any one of the three. That’s especially so if you don’t have a professional on board as a trustee. Here are the five most common mistakes of do-it-yourselfers, and tips on... Read Full Story

Tax -loss harvesting can be used as an opportunistic value-add within a well-diversified portfolio. By Abraham Bailin | 11-02-11 | 06:00 AM The effects of taxes on an investor’s portfolio over the long term are substantial and fairly predictable. Given today’s low-return environment, the productive value of each dollar invested must be considered. Within the context of a well-diversified portfolio, even the savviest of investors will suffer losses in core holdings from time to time... Read Full Story

Kelly Phillips Erb, Contributor Forbes Over the years, I’ve represented a lot of clients before the IRS . I’ve listened to hours and hours of IRS hold music. And I’ve had a lot of conversations with IRS reps and agents. But last week something happened that truly shocked me: the IRS hung up on me.  On purpose. The details aren’t all that important. Basically, I called the IRS to discuss a client’s tax matter. While it’s my job to zealously protect the rights of my clients, I am very... Read Full Story

Weston Wellington  September 16, 2011 Anyone studying the long-run history of American business cannot help but observe how many of the prominent firms of one era fail to make it to the next. Free-market economies are characterized not only by intense competition but also by disruptive change. Sometimes a company’s toughest competitor turns out to be a firm it has never heard of selling a product or service that didn’t exist until recently. The list of companies that once... Read Full Story

The following story illustrates why it is important for individual investors to work with a fiduciary investment advisor instead of a non-fiduciary brokerage firm. If you are currently working with a brokerage firm, I recommend you look carefully at what you are being charged on for monthly statements for various services and transactions. – Charles Stanley, editor Finds evidence of overcharges for transactions, postage By Bruce Kelly September 7, 2011 3:42 pm ET Living up to its... Read Full Story

by Melanie Waddell NASAA recently released its list of the top scams con artists use to trap unwary, or merely desperate, investors during these volatile economic times Advisors and investors beware: Even though Bernie Madoff is gone, economic uncertainty and volatile stock markets still breed con artists itching to trap the unwary or merely desperate. During turbulent economic times like we’re currently facing, “con artists follow the news and seek ways to exploit the headlines to... Read Full Story

by BILL BISCHOFF While Hurricane Irene turned out to be milder than expected, it still caused deaths, injuries and an estimated $5 billion to $7 billion in property damage. And Irene was not the only big problem this year. In the spring we had devastating tornadoes in Missouri and widespread flooding in the Midwest. The sad truth: natural disasters occur every year in the U.S. because this is a big country. If you’re unlucky enough to suffer a disaster-related casualty, here’s what you need... Read Full Story

Don’t let a touch of “ gold fever” sucker your clients into what very might well be the latest gold -plated investor scam. To help protect investors from such potential “golden cons,” the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority today issued an investor alert, “ Gold ” Stocks–Some Investments Mine Your Pocketbook, ostensibly to warn investors about investment scams that promote gold stocks. The Finra alert also provides information on how to invest in legitimate gold investments. With... Read Full Story

Roberton Williams  | Posted on August 23, 2011, 12:47 pm When Warren Buffett called for higher taxes on the wealthy in  a New York Times op-ed  last week, the billionaire investor argued that he and wealthy people like him face lower federal rates than the rest of us. Low rates on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends and limited exposure to payroll taxes mean low taxes for the rich, he asserted, while more typical workers don’t get those breaks. He’s right on many of his points... Read Full Story

The number of federal individual income tax returns examined by the Internal Revenue Service has continuously increased over the past five years, with 1 out of every 90 taxpayers examined in fiscal year 2010, according to  a statistical report  released today by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. That’s up 23 percent from fiscal year 2006, when 1 of every 103 individual returns was examined. Also, the IRS increased the overall use of enforcement tools (liens, levies, and... Read Full Story