This article speaks to a ready market.  Why?  Because statistics suggest that 80% of all small and mid-sized businesses in the country have made no adequate plans for transition in the event of one owner’s retirement, long-term disability, or premature death.  And “adequate” includes being properly...

You can’t eat your cake and have it, too!  We’ve all said it many times and in every case we were talking about more than just desserts.  Layered within the phrase is the more subtle and intended message that you can’t have it both ways; or that to get something you’ve got to give up something...

Nothing saps the thrill of owning a sassy new automobile more than the increased premiums on the car insurance that are about half the amount of the monthly payment on your Little Deuce Coupe. And those nifty printer/scanner/copier/faxing machines that they are practically giving away at Paper-clips...

Okay, let’s start with a few premises and see where it leads:  Love is blind/ Marriage is an institution/ Love and marriage go together/ Therefore, marriage is an institution for the blind. I don’t know if Aristotle would approve of the structure of that syllogism, but it does illustrate that...

In the past the word culture referred to a society’s accumulated knowledge and its time-tested and proven body of values and principles which each generation must pass on to the next if the ongoing continuity and success of the community was to be assured.  But much like paper currency, words lose...

Why is it good to have a runner on second base?  Two reasons:  first, he’s in “scoring position” where a well-placed single will drive him home; and second, he can see the signals the catcher is giving the pitcher and pass them on to the batter.  In this subtle game of refined skills, anticipating...

You only need to look at your last paystub to be reminded that, as long as taxes are around, what you “get” is not usually what you “get”.  But the nice thing about the death benefit on a life insurance policy is that the amount you see on the contract is what you get . . . maybe. The most...

The most common strategy that wealthy and healthy taxpayers use to fund against unavoidable anticipated estate tax liability is to purchase life insurance in an irrevocable trust; funding the trust with gifts so the trustee can pay the premiums. Transfers to the trust can be protected from gift taxation...

Little Harold ran into the kitchen where his Mother was preparing dinner and said, “Hey Mom!  You know that antique vase on the stand in the front hall that has been handed down from generation to generation?”  When she looked up he reported, “Well my generation just dropped it!” The transfer...

Few American publishers have had or will ever approach the influence of Henry Luce in his heyday.  Through the middle half of the 20th century, Luce founded and successfully grew a family of magazines whose content was a major factor in shaping the thought and activity of American society.  He named...