Talk Back

 By Max Alexander 
A DOW JONES NEWSWIRES COLUMN 
 
When a land dispute threatened to tear a family apart, financial adviser Ben Ledyard stepped in with a novel solution that made a whole township happy.

Two sides of a family owned more than 600 acres of undeveloped land in southeastern Pennsylvania that was worth at least $3.5 million – many times that amount if it were developed. When the matriarch on one side of the clan died, her heirs were staring at an estate tax bill (based on the value of half the land) they couldn’t possibly afford. Their solution was to sell the land to a developer.

Not so fast, said the other side of the family. They wanted to keep the land undeveloped, but they couldn’t afford to buy out the other side of the family either.

Continue reading…

These are the personal views of Jeff Geygan, president of Milwaukee Private Wealth Management, Inc., an SEC-registered investment advisory firm in Milwaukee:

A longtime client phoned recently and asked me about a solicitation he received from a local financial planner. The client is the 61 year-old owner of a successful small business, financially sophisticated and has had years of business experience. For these reasons, I was somewhat surprised by his question.

He had been offered a 6% guaranteed investment for one year. He felt this might be a good alternative for some of the excess cash and CDs he had on deposit at his local bank. Further, he was told the earnings were tax free.

Something smelled fishy. Continue reading…