The 24-year old actor James Dean was the iconic Rebel Without a Cause, the image of teenage angst, who already had three blockbuster movies under his belt before a misplaced 1950 Ford Tudor blocked the intersection on US Route 466 that would serve as a premature end to the meteoric rise of the young...

Comedian Steven Wright tells of the time a burglar broke into his apartment while he was asleep, stole everything, and replaced it all with exact replicas.  Later his best friend walked in, looked at Steve and said, “Do I know you?” Americans have never been averse to imitations when the original...

Director Francis Ford Coppola leaves us with a cold and calculating Michael Corleone looking out the windows of his lake house over the water that would prove to be the River Styx for his brother.  What is to be a day of relaxation and fishing for Fredo will end in the fulfillment of Michael’s directive...

My Mother didn’t tolerate gambling in any form. I couldn’t even play marbles for keeps. If someone solicited her for a lottery ticket, she simply donated the money to the cause.  Her conviction still resonates in my life choices. Her influence was strongly tested when I found myself in the Florida...

The best subtitle for this article would probably be, “New Horizons in Financial Underwriting!”  But first, let’s take a short break to capture a parent-child moment in a typical American home: Father: “Son, I want you to be good at school today.” Son: “I’ll be good if you give me five...

Whenever life insurance is proposed the first two client-questions that inevitably follow are:  first, how much will it cost and then, are the premiums deductible (especially if the client is a business-person).  Let’s deal with the second. In a business situation life insurance premiums are never...

How much is a life insurance policy worth when the insured passes away?  Easy question, right? Just look at the amount of the death benefit on the contract.  Most think that, because the proceeds are received income tax-free, what you see is what you get.  If the policy says $100,000, then the beneficiary...

Much is made of how few taxpayers will pay federal estate taxes since the lifetime exemption was increased by the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017. But there may be more prospects than you think.  In any case, here is all you need to know to get the ball rolling in a discussion with any client: Each...