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October Headlines
Family Continuity and Governance
Family Education
Family Office Practice Management
Healthcare
Industry Trends
Investment Planning
Property Investment
Risk Management
Strategic Philanthropy
Taxation
Technology Trends
Family Continuity and Governance
Shielding Assets with the Delaware APT
The Delaware Asset Protection Trust offers a way to shield assets from creditors’ claims. Wilmington Trust explores potential uses and describes how to design a Delaware APT that will provide formidable obstacles for creditors.
Family Education
How to Be a Smart Business Seller
An article by the business and tax law firm of Wilson Vukelich focuses on the legal aspects of business exit preparations, minimizing the legal “skeletons” that can erode the overall deal price and increase the cost and time to complete a deal.
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Principles of Wealth for Long-Term Success
As an heir to the Carnation fortune and a financial adviser, Stuart Lucas is an experienced wealth manager. In this article from Knowledge@Wharton, he offers the eight principles of strategic wealth management that he says are at the heart of every decision he makes.
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Family Office Practice Management
Inside the Uniform Principal and Income Act
Trust reform over the past decade has forced trust professionals to stay current with ever-changing tax laws and to change the way they conduct business. This advisory from Wilmington Trust discusses one of those laws, the Uniform Principal and Income Act, and its impact for trust professionals.
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Healthcare
Applying Economics to Healthcare Risk
Consumers define risk differently than medical and insurance experts do, and that can lead to less than optimal medical decisions and faulty policy making. Wharton professor Mark Pauley suggests applying an economic model called expected utility maximization. This article from Knowledge@Wharton looks at how that model can help consumers make better medical care decisions.
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Rx for a Healthy Medical Plan
Finding the right healthcare coverage can be a challenge. In this paper, Maura Carley of Healthcare Navigation looks at the three types of coverage available to U.S citizens younger than 65 and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each for wealthy families.
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How to Get the Best Healthcare
Most consumers now recognize that to get the best healthcare, they need to take a more active role in the process of getting care. A paper from PinnacleCare helps individuals navigate the healthcare system, avoid medical errors and make informed treatment decisions.
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Industry Trends
There's Not Enough Money for Private Banks
Ten private banks manage 63 percent of the high net worth assets among 180 banks studied by Scorpio Partnership’s Private Banking KPI Benchmark 2007 report. However, those banks actually may manage less than 20 percent of the world’s total high net worth assets. The report reviews key performance indicators to provide detailed analysis on the global wealth management industry.
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Investment Planning
The 130/30 Key to Smarter Equity Allocations
So-called 130/30 strategies can make traditional equity allocations work harder and smarter. In its Buyer’s Guide to 130/30 Equity Strategies, JP Morgan Asset Management details the investment skills, operational capabilities and prime broker relationships that investors need to succeed in selecting 130/30 strategies.
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Deconstructing CDOs
A new white paper from Wachovia provides an introduction to collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs; describes the assets supporting a CDO; offers a guide to choosing a CDO manager; and details how to track CDO performance.
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Transaction-Cost Analysis as a Source of Alpha
A new research paper from Barclays Global Investors argues that accurate transaction-cost models allow portfolio manager to make better decisions regarding which securities should or should not be traded, and the optimal size of each trade.
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Technical Currency Strategies Still Viable
Despite the poor performance of technical- or momentum-based currency management strategies during the past three years, technical strategies still have a place within a multi-strategy approach, according to a study conducted by the currency team at Putnam Global Institutional Management.
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Fund of Hedge Funds Portfolio Optimization Using the Omega Ratio
Because it captures skew and kurtosis in addition to the more commonly measured standard deviation, the omega ratio allows for a more robust optimization of the risks and returns of investing in hedge funds than does the more widely used Sharpe ratio, Fortigent researchers claim.
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20/20 Hindsight on Pre-IPO Investing
Does investing in a pre-IPO outweigh the risks? It can, based on a look at Bessemer Venture Partners’ “anti-portfolio.” The author of this EU Banking News Network article explains why BVP passed on later winners, including eBay, FedEx and Intel, and offers tips for private investors.
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The Search for Alpha in Hedge Funds
Despite investors’ concerns that newer hedge funds have significantly high attrition rates, a MayerCap study of funds launched in 2003 and 2004 indicates there is a “sweet spot” investing in fund managers with $30 million to $250 million in assets under management.
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Investing Wisely in Commodities
The effort to analyze commodity-linked investments and make the necessary distinctions among them has trailed far behind the product development cycle and accompanying marketing push. This paper from DTB Capital can help investors understand each product’s role in the marketplace and determine whether it fits within a given set of investment objectives.
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The Next Phase for Emerging Markets
The growth of local currency debt markets offers investors new opportunities to potentially benefit from the structural improvements occurring in the world’s emerging market. A PIMCO portfolio manager explains why the local debt and currencies of emerging markets are among the most attractive investments for global fixed-income investors.
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Multi-Strategy Funds vs. Funds of Funds
A research paper from Fortigent examines the strengths and weaknesses of both multi-strategy funds and funds of funds and, in the end, concludes neither type of investment has a distinct advantage over the other.
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Property Investment
Analyzing the Risk Beyond Core
European real estate investors are reaching out from direct private investment in core stabilized assets. In this article, JP Morgan explains a mean-variance optimization tool that investors can use to analyze the risk of buying outside Europe or in the public markets.
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Crystal Ball on UK Property Investment
Property investment has shown strong gains over the past five years in the UK, but the pace is now slowing. In this release, the Association of Investment Companies shares input from property investment fund managers on where this sector seems to be headed.
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Riding the Real Estate Roller Coaster
Non-traditional mortgage lenders are exiting the market, and the subprime crisis is making headlines. Where do we go from here? Wachovia Capital Markets provides perspective and recommendations in its report, Investing in the Changing Face of Real Estate. Beyond the residential and commercial real estate markets, Wachovia explores the subprime crisis, private equity and emerging markets in India and China.
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Risk Management
Protecting a Fine Art Collection
Collectors of fine art can do a number of things to protect their investments besides buying valuable articles coverage. HUB International Personal Insurance provides a checklist of preventive and maintenance steps that serious collectors may want to consider.
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Strategic Philanthropy
Five Paths to Making a Difference
No one road to philanthropy offers the best approach. Foundation Source considers the strengths of five different paths that foundations take: checkbook philanthropy, responsive funding, venture philanthropy, results-sustained philanthropy and collaborative funding.
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Taxation
All About ILITs
Irrevocable life insurance trusts offer flexibility and tax benefits. In this article from Estate Planning magazine, Diana Zeydel explores estate tax issues, income tax and generation-skipping transfer tax issues, and ILIT alternatives. A checklist for preparing and administering an ILIT is included.
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Business Plane, Personal Use
Taking the business plan for a personal trip has become more complicated, thanks to new IRS regulations. Tax specialist Gary Horowitz reviews the regulations, offering “three ways to skin a cat” to show how they can work to a business’s advantage and keep it from paying more taxes than necessary.
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Technology Trends
UK Cyber-Crime Zooms Upward
Financial cyber-crime is on the rise in the UK, up 32 percent in 2006 from a year earlier and expected to continue zooming upward, according to a report by Garlik, an IT security consulting firm. This report offers data and commentary on identity fraud-theft, financial fraud, offenses against individuals, computer misuse and sexual offenses related to the Internet.
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