Posts by Edelen McWilliams
21st Century Trustees
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on FFI Practitioner on November 16, 2016. Business is all about the future. An entrepreneur takes an idea and makes it into a service or product that people will want even need, for years to come. Trusts and trustees, on the other hand, have long been considered “of…
Read MoreAfter the Plan: Guiding personal trustees: the challenge and some ways to address this
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on Wealth Management.com in May 2016. Many years ago, when I was a young lawyer, a new client, “Tom,” entered our offices. He was quite concerned—his friend, “Sam,” had appointed him as trustee of a trust that Sam had set up for his family. Tom had been quite…
Read MoreNext Gen 2.0: Taking things to a higher level
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published in Trusts & Estates in March 2016. You can’t miss it (or them). “Next Gen” is everywhere. The private wealth management industry is awash in Next Gen summits, educational programs, research studies and books, as private wealth advisors of all stripes (lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and more) search…
Read MoreHearing Women’s Voices in Wealth Planning
Bringing everyone to the table. By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on Wealth Management.com in October 2015. Earlier this week, I spoke at a conference on Private Wealth Management in Latin America. While that region may not be known for its cutting edge approach to women and wealth, I welcomed the opportunity to join…
Read MoreWhat Do Women Really Want? Estate Planning Tailored to Women’s Needs
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published in Private Wealth Management in 2004 Sigmund Freud, who figured out a great deal about the human psyche, was unable to answer one key question: “What do women really want?” A century later, it seems that lawyers, accountants and financial advisors in the private wealth management industry are…
Read MoreMindfulness in Advisor-Client Relationships
By slowing down and looking inward, a financial advisor who’s having difficulty with a client might better understand what’s really happening. By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on WealthManagement.com on May 27, 2015 “Mindfulness” is a movement on the move. A combination of Eastern philosophy with Western psychology and medicine, its basic tenet is…
Read MoreEstate and Wealth Planning for Family Enterprises: Reality – not myth – As the Proper Starting Point
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on FFI on April 15, 2015. The 2015 FFI Global Conference theme of “myths and realities” provides an excellent opportunity to focus attention on how best to advise family enterprises for the long-term success of the family and the enterprise. There are many myths to be found in…
Read MoreBeyond the Traditional Estate Planning ‘Choices’
Expanding the options. By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on Wealth Management.com in March 2015. Estate planners often advise clients that there are only three places where you can leave your assets at death: family, taxes and charity. It became popular to focus on this rule of thumb to encourage tax and charitable planning…
Read MoreShould Parents Tell Their Adult Children What’s in their Estate-Planning Documents? Yes.
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on Wealth Management.com in February 2015. In general, transparency is the best approach. In general, I believe transparency is the best approach to estate planning when a client has adult children. Of course, what “transparency” actually means will differ according to the client and the specifics of the…
Read MorePlanning Trust Administration to Avoid Conflict
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published in WealthManagement.com in December 2014 In wealth management, the trust is the most common structure used to realize our widely recognized and accepted freedom of disposition. Within broad parameters, the law of trusts allows the grantor to set forth a private law that both permits and restricts the…
Read More‘Tis the Season: Year-end planning that doesn’t lead your clients down the road to conflict
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on Wealth Management.com in December 2014. Year-end planning that doesn’t lead your clients down the road to conflict. Last month, I wrote about family business feuds and how they could be prevented more easily than people might expect. While some families might not mind public attention, most families…
Read MoreAttending to a Client’s True Needs
Lessons learned in unexpected places By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on WealthManagement.com on July 29, 2014 I recently found myself in need of medical help for an unexplained injury. Once again, I found myself learning some lessons that can easily – if not obviously – transfer over to advisors in private wealth management.…
Read MorePritzker Family Enterprise: A Family Governance Case Study
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on Columbia CaseWorks Fall 2013 What does the Pritzker family story, one of the wealthiest and most philanthropic families in the United States, tell us about family governance?
Read MoreReality Trumps Myth: Pritzker family enterprise story
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published in Trusts & Estates, March 2014 Family business, trust and estate planners have been relying on a set of assumptions about client goals, family relationships and the definition of “success” for as long as the industry has existed. While many of these assumptions have served both advisors and…
Read MoreGot Love? Getting to the “heart” of it
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on Wealth Management.com in February 2014. Valentine’s Day is always a bright spot in the midst of a sometimes (especially this year on the East Coast) long, cold winter. Long enough into the year for the holiday glow to have dimmed, but not so far that it’s lost…
Read MoreMay I Help You? – How perspective matters in client-advisor relationships
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on WealthManagement.com on February 28, 2013 Some time ago, I was describing a particular client dilemma to a colleague. After listening to my concerns, she said, “so, the question is: have you been hired to help, or are you the hired help?” Her response has stuck with me…
Read MoreFamily Meetings Come of Age: How to create an effective forum for all generations
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published on WealthManagement.com, 2013 As older members of the Baby Boom generation were reaching adulthood, I spent many an hour watching the bevy of TV shows that were focused on the ways that the American family was evolving in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The fact that I…
Read MoreFamily Governance Meets Family Dynamics: a Survey and Strategies for Successful Joint Philanthropy
By Patricia M. Angus and Fredda Herz Brown, Ph.D. – Originally published on NCFP Passages in 2007. The Smith family* had been running their foundation for about four years when it hit a roadblock. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in their late 60s, had funded the foundation with proceeds from the sale of a family business.…
Read MoreA Road Map: Choosing Advisors To Help Your Family With Governance and Family Dynamics
By Jane N. Abitanta, Patricia M. Angus, and Fredda Herz Brown – December 7, 2006 General Tips for Your Selection Process 1. Consider this a learning experience having a number of firms and/or individuals to choose from will help your family continue to focus your requirements. 2. Clearly define the family’s criteria for advisor selection…
Read MoreThe Family Governance Pyramid: From Principles to Practice
By Patricia M. Angus – Originally published in Journal of Wealth Management in 2005 Virtually every family of significant wealth lives within a family governance system, yet few know that this is the case and even fewer know how to ensure that they are in charge of the system and that it operates for their…
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