Financial and legal advisors representing entertainers and professional athletes—“celebrities”—confront unique circumstances not usually present when working with more traditional clients. These challenges include the “sudden wealth” effect, short earnings horizon, inconsistent cash flow, unrestrained spending habits, limited financial literacy, and incompetent advising.

After more than 35 years of “buyer beware” warnings, why do consumers continue to purchase flexible premium non-guaranteed death benefit life insurance products for a 10 to 50 year planning duration period, assume policy performance risk without knowing the risks to be managed, and forego annual policy performance monitoring—all while knowing there is a high probability that the policy will lapse without value during their lifetimes? 

Hedge fund K-1s can be voluminous and difficult when determining how to handle the tax treatment of the income and deductions at the individual level. This article will help you navigate K-1s to understand how certain items would impact the tax treatment at the individual level. The first step in determining the proper treatment of income and expense items is to identify whether the partnership is a trader fund, investor fund, or fund of funds.

Straddles are defined in IRC section 1092(c) as two or more offsetting positions in personal property. A taxpayer holds offsetting positions with respect to personal property if the taxpayer’s risk of loss from holding any position is substantially reduced by reason of their holding one or more other positions with respect to personal property—whether or not of the same kind. 

Federal watchdogs are demonstrating their renewed focus on the illegal use of offshore bank accounts, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) says it is zeroing in on potential tax evaders. 

In the classic children’s movie The Princess Bride, Billy Crystal plays a miracle-performing medicine man. When the hero of the story is brought to him, Crystal’s character says that he is “mostly dead.” That is an apt description of fundamental tax reform’s current state.