Since my maternal grandfather had eight siblings, the number of cousins on my mother’s side of the family measured in the dozens. I didn’t even know many of their names, but I did know one by his nickname “Dark Cloud”.
I never saw Dark Cloud wear any clothes that were not solid black. He paced around [...]
Twenty two years ago I sat in my corporate tax law class led by Professor George Yin, who would go on to provide economic counsel in the George H.W. Bush administration. Professor Yin had some interesting theories two decades ago that are today making headlines in The Wall Street Journal.
In case you were wondering why [...]
Several weeks ago I reported how the government Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) money was being used to shore up bank balance sheets rather than purchasing troubled assets from those same balance sheets. I explained that the government discovered the TARP bail out money was insufficient to purchase all of the toxic assets (bad mortgages, [...]
As my plane descended for its landing at O’Hare airport the pilot announced that the winds were out of the northwest at fifteen to twenty miles per hour and that the temperature was twenty degrees – below zero!
My wife and I were in Chicago to share in the joy of a very dear [...]
Not too long ago I received a call from a child of a client that hasn’t visited with me in almost eighteen years. We drafted a revocable trust for this client back then. At the time the federal estate tax exemption was lower than it is today, but she also had fewer assets, and those [...]
Regular readers of this column know that I consider the family member who takes on the responsibilities as trustee of a parent’s revocable living trust to have taken on serious obligations as opposed to having an honor bestowed upon them. Recent changes to the Florida statutes underscore this thought.
When a parent becomes incapacitated or dies, [...]