“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” spoke Albert Einstein.
After 50 years of observing family business, I have seen dozens of mistakes repeated again and again by inexperienced— and yes, sometimes experienced—business owners that cost tons (often more than $1 million) of tax dollars and wreak economic havoc on the business owners, their businesses and their families.
Joe DiMaggio, unquestionably one of the real baseball legends of all time, has gone to the big ballpark in the sky. He knew how to use his arm and his glove, but mostly his bat, to win countless ballgames.
Gather roun' all of you stock market Nervous Nellies and conservative investors too. My network, a working group of tax and financial experts, has found a solution to disenchantment with the stock market.
When I was young (in the early 1950s) I had my first consultation with a closely held business owner client who had the it's-time-to-transfer-my-business-to-the-kids itch. Since then, technology, rules, regulations and ever-expanding complexity have changed the way all of us do business.
"I still want to kick myself for thinking my estate plan was done. For years I was convinced that I had the perfect plan," said Joe, a 64-year-old reader of this column from North Carolina.
An interesting article in the April 3, 2000, issue of Newsweek titled, "Darling, It'll All Be Yours—Soon," got me thinking. The article explains how "the inheritance boom is quietly reshaping how we think about death.
Should we kill the estate tax?
Go ahead, answer the question—YES or NO!
My knee-jerk reaction is to kill the beast, now and forever more. But remember, there's no free lunch.
I recently saw a company advertise installation of 90 percent of what it sells. This gives a company an edge over its competitor, where the routine is, if the product doesn't work, the manufacturer blames it on the installer, and the installer blames it on the manufacturer.
The tax law frustrates successful business owners at every turn. Never have I seen this frustration expressed better than in a letter from a reader of this column (Let's call him Joe).
A dreaded disease is spreading like wildfire in the United States. It debilitates most successful business owners, then ravages some or all of the children, and eventually hurts the grandchildren.
