AI Is Here to Change Wealth Management
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Brent chats with Daniel Woo about the ways that AI is (and is not) changing the world of wealth management. They talk about innovations, the current state of the AI market, how AI can be used in bespoke ways, and limitations of AI that are still yet to be solved.
Wise Uses of Debt in Estate Planning
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Brent chats with Gray Edmondson about how debt can be a valuable tool in wealth transfers. They talk about recent tax court cases, how the AFR works, planning for cash loans, and then more complex transactions using debt to sell assets.
Stategic Investing in Land
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Brent chats with Brent Bowers about how he has strategically invested in land and built his real estate business. They discuss the tactics and address important risk management techniques to improve a real estate portfolio. Brent Bowers is an investor and coach with a focus on buying and selling vacant land. As an Army Officer…
Strategic Planning for Americans in France
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Brent chats with Christine Alexis Concepción about how Americans in France can strategize around the thorny international tax issues they face. They talk about investing abroad, owning real estate in France, thinking about the cross-border tax world, and planning to succeed.
Trust Planning in Divorce
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Brent chats with Elizabeth Garlovsky about the ways trusts can be used in prenuptial agreements and divorce. They talk about structuring the trusts, common issues, and the results divorce can have on revocable and irrevocable trusts.
Income Tax Planning in Estate Planning
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Brent chats about various income tax considerations that arise in estate planning and are more important now with a $15 million estate tax exemption. He talks about retirement accounts, real estate, partnership interests, and shares in corporations.
Why Portability Is Not a Substitute for Planning
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Brent chats about portability and how it needs to fit within broader planning considerations, including income tax, estate tax, generation-skipping transfer tax, and overall structural themes.
Things Advisers Should Know About Privileged Communications
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Brent chats about where attorney-client privilege begins, ends, and unexpectedly disappears. This material is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the speaker as of the date noted and not necessarily of the speaker’s firm or its affiliates. If you are enjoying the podcast please SUBSCRIBE and leave a REVIEW, and if…
Why Trusts Are the Best IRA Beneficiaries
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Brent chats about how trusts may actually be the best IRA beneficiaries now.
Why “I Just Want Something Simple” Is Usually a Red Flag
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Brent chats about what lawyers and advisers should hear when clients ask for “simple” estate plans.
Why Beneficiary Designations Can Break a “Perfect” Estate Plan
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Brent chats about the ways that beneficiary designations can quietly, and unintentionally, override carefully drafted documents.
An Unfunded Trust is Not a Failed Estate Plan
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Brent chats about why an unfunded trust is often a fixable planning gap and not an estate planning disaster.
FinCEN Non-Financed Real Estate Transfer Reports
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Brent chats with Gary Fletcher about the upcoming FinCEN non-financed real estate transfer reports. The reports will make many professionals, including lawyers, subject to reporting obligations on many real estate transfers. This would reach into routine estate planning transfers. Brent and Gary discuss the details of the program, what transfers are caught in its net,…
Estate Planning Challenges With Married Clients
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Brent chats with Elizabeth Garlovsky about the unique challenges in representing married clients. They discuss some of the ethical considerations, including how to handle conflicts, when financial goals do not align, and ways to navigate topics like divorce.
Using Non-Grantor Trusts for Income Tax Planning
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Brent chats with Natalie Perry about how non-grantor trusts can be used for income tax planning. They discuss the non-grantor trust tax rules, and how these trusts can be used to same both state and federal income tax by moving liquid assets to no tax states, using charitable deductions, and stacking qualified small business stock.
Opportunities for Law Students in Estate Planning
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Brent chats with Jenny Rozelle about what opportunities await law students interested in estate planning. They talk about their law school journey, Jenny’s non-traditional entry into estate planning, the market and financial opportunities, and practicing in large or small communities.
Year-End Financial Planning
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Brent chats with Anna N’Jie Konte about what financial planning moves people should consider before the end of 2025. They talk about contributing to retirement plans and determining whether to make Roth conversions. They also discuss tax loss harvesting, charitable giving, and other tax sensitive options for planning.
Clauses Every Trust Should Have: Part 2
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Brent chats with T.J. Ryan about important terms to make your trusts better. In this second part of that conversation, they discuss the importance of crafting the distribution provisions of a trust. They get into powers of appointment, spendthrift clauses, and what to do to anticipate incapacitated beneficiaries. T.J. is a Senior Partner at the…
Real Estate Provisions in OBBBA
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Brent chats with Eric Freeman about the real estate provisions in OBBBA. They talk about the importance of bonus depreciation, Opportunity Zone 2.0, New Market Tax Credits, and analyze what the industry could look like under this new tax regime.
Sham Trusts
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Brent and John Strohmeyer chat about sham trust schemes. They explain what the structures and hoped for results are and then break down why they do not work. They also speculate about why people buy these schemes.
Inbound Migration and Planning
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Brent chats with Naomita Yadav about the tax and planning challenges of high-net-worth individuals migrating to the United States. They talk about global mobility, how tax can cause unexpected issues, and how one might plan for that transition effectively.
Federal Policy and Investing
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Brent chats with Michael Preis, Chief Investment Officer at TCI Wealth Advisors, about how federal policy in the United States can affect investment strategies. They talk about the importance of planning and how a client focused approach is different from just pure asset allocation. Finally, they talk about crypto and where it fits into the…
Culture and Planning for China, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam
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Brent chats with Tony Yu about the important differences between China, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam from a cultural, monetary, and planning perspective. They discuss how to adjust to those differences, understand where they may be coming from, and enjoy the rich tapestry of those nations.
Estate Planning for the Wealthy Post-OBBBA
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Brent chats about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and its impact on estate planning for ultra-high net worth families.
He gets into the increased estate tax exemption, tactics for using and managing high exemptions, opportunity zones, and the increases to qualified small business stock exemption, and the SALT cap, among other things.
Master Life Insurance With Analytics
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Brent chats with Wallis Tsai about how to avoid the many bad life insurance policies with objective analysis.
They discuss how to avoid those bad life insurance policies, war stories of nightmare scenarios, and good use cases for the right insurance.
Creative Uses of CRTs in 2025
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Brent chats with Evan Unzelman about the many creative uses of charitable remainder trusts. They talk about modifying the trust, selling the income interests, contributing the income interests to new trusts, and using CRTs as IRA beneficiaries.
Americans Living in Portugal
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Brent chats with Sasha Young da Silva about estate and tax planning for Americans who have relocated to beautiful Portugal. They talk about the tax challenges of cross an international border, surprises Americans find in the Portuguese system, and how to make the transition.
Compliance Work Should be Optional
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Brent chats with Nicole Davis, CPA, MBA — founder of Butler-Davis Tax & Accounting and a Forbes Top 200 CPA — about why today’s accountants can (and should) treat traditional compliance work as a choice, not a requirement. Nicole explains how technology, distributed workforces, great processes, and training clients can help accountants (and any other…
Private Trust Companies
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Brent chats with Joel Revill about Private Trust Companies (PTCs). They explain the basics of PTCs and their structures. They explain what families would want to use a PTC and how the structure can solve issues of governance and management of family wealth. Finally, they discuss the unique position of PTCs with crypto assets.
11th Hour Tax Planning For Signed Deals
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Brent talks about what tax planning can happen AFTER the client has already signed the deal to sell a large asset. He talks about the difference between income and estate tax planning. He then discusses terms of the deal, installment method, QSBS, charitable giving, charitable lead annuity trusts, and how discounts may still be available…
5 Important Tariff and Planning Questions
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Brent chats about five key questions relating to tariffs and planning in difficult market conditions. He gives answers to the following questions:
1. What’s the real strategy behind these tariffs—and what is the administration hoping to achieve by imposing them now?
2. How might these tariffs and the market’s reaction affect U.S. consumers and investors…
Clauses Every Trust Should Have: Part 1
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Brent chats with T.J. Ryan about important terms to make your trusts better. In this first part of that conversation, they discuss the importance of settlor intent, HIPAA releases and incapacity determinations, determining the character of property of the trust as community property or separate property, holding property in lifetime spendthrift trusts with careful distribution…
Decoding Life Insurance Products
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Brent chats with Steven Zeiger about why life insurance products are so complex. Steven explains the mechanics of the products and how data can reveal with are best for our clients. Steven also shares his methodology and best practices for comparing life insurance options.
The Present and Future of AI in Estate Planning
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Brent chats about how AI can be used in estate planning now. He discusses its current limitations and dangers associated with AI-Emboldened Advisers. He also discusses the future outlook of AI and how advisers can remain relevant.
Planning in Volatility
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In this Live recording, Brent chats about the state of the tax bills in Washington, DC, an interesting fiduciary liability case involving foreign accounts, how to plan for an uncertain future, and what gifts volatile markets bring for private wealth transfers.
Replay: Ukraine
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This is an episode from March 2022, where Brent talks about his history with Ukraine and Russia’s invasion. Although we are not almost three years removed, the content seems as relevant today as it was then.
The Power of Adding Leverage to Estate Planning
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Brent chats about how adding leverage (or debt) to estate planning vehicles can increase the wealth transfer potential. He talks specifically about adding debt in irrevocable grantor trusts, GRATs, and family limited partnerships.
Moving Trusts to No Income Tax States
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Brent chats about how to move a trust’s income tax residence to a State with no income tax. He talks about what trusts can do this and when and why it might make sense. He also explains when the math does not favor that kind of move.
Trump and Republican Tax Proposals
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Brent chats about the new administration, and news of tax proposals from Republican tax negotiators. He shares his thoughts on tariffs, lower C corporation tax rates, the SALT deduction, the 199A deduction, opportunity zone funds, and estate tax. He also discusses what some of these changes could mean for taxpayers trying to plan.
Thinking About The 2025 Exemptions
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Brent chats about how he’s thinking about using the 2025 Estate Tax exemption of $13.99 million. He discusses getting ulta-high net worth clients to act, the basic planning frameworks and numbers, and benefits of the full picture.
Smart Planning for Equity Compensation
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Brent chats with Ryan Halvorson about how to make smart moves with equity compensation. They talk about different kinds of equity compensation, from RSUs, stock options, to deferred compensation. They then explain what issues to watch out for and how to make smart decisions from a financial planning perspective.
Buy Sell Agreements in a Post-Connelly World
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Brent chats with Paul Hood about what the world looks like for buy sell agreements after the US Supreme Court’s decision in Connelly. They discuss how, if at all, the decision changes existing law, what business owners should think about for business succession planning, and where the case leaves us going forward.
Expatriation from the USA
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Brent chats with Toni Ann Kruse about what it means from a practical and tax perspective to expatriate from the United States. They explain the difference in residency, covered expatriates, and significant tax considerations. They also talk about some of the day-to-day challenges of leaving the United States.
Helping Others Understand Complex Ideas
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Brent chats with Geoff Grenert about how to help client understand complicated ideas as part of their planning. They discuss the challenge of explaining things simply, helping people overcome their own fears, and ultimately helping people make wise decisions. They also talk about their processes for creating and delivering the message their clients need to…
Planning With A Non-Citizen Spouse
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Brent explains some of the challenges of planning when there is a non-US citizen spouse. He dives into the estate tax marital deduction, the gift tax marital deduction, Form 3520, income tax recognition events, and expatriation. He also explains how these issues arise at various generational levels of a family.
Basics of Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts
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Brent chats with Matt Hochstetler about the basics of irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs). They explain what these trusts are, why they are useful, Crummey provisions, and creative planning with life insurance.
Remember THIS in the Last Months of 2024
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Brent chats about how to think about the US elections, reminds you the CTA beneficial owner reports are due by December 31, 2024, suggests planning based on the laws as they are not as we wish they would be, and spotting important red flags when there are non-Americans in the family tree.
Basics of Remainder Purchase Marital Trusts
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Brent chats about the basics of Remainder Purchase Marital Trusts (RPMTs). He explains how they work within the gift tax marital deduction rules. Then he compares them to QTIP Trusts and IDGTs (see our prior episodes about those). Finally, Brent walks through the mechanics of RPMTs and how they can be effective wealth transfer tools.…
Basics of Beneficiary Deemed Inheritor’s Trusts
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Brent chats with Steve Gorin about the Beneficiary Deemed Inheritor’s Trust (BDIT). They talk about the structure of these irrevocable trusts, their potential benefits in estate planning, and risks involved in these trusts. they give practical ideas about analyzing whether to use BDITs.
The Importance of Family Meetings
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Brent chats with Cody Cassidy about the importance of holding family meetings. They discuss why a meeting can set the tone for a family’s financial success. They also share tips and best practices for planning, holding, and following up on those meetings.
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