The Revocable Living Trust: Helping Clients, Growing Your Practice

Posted by Robert L. Arone Prevention Is the Greatest Cure Your clients trust you with their financial future and the legacy they want to leave behind. They rely on you to anticipate challenges, foresee trouble, and take preventative measures. When it comes to a client’s financial wellbeing, it is up to the trusted advisor to know what problems are likely to arise and to have solutions ready to help avoid conflict in the family, waste of resources, and other common pitfalls. One crucial tool to keep assets safe and to ensure they are distributed in the way your client wants is through the use of a revocable living trust. What Is a Revocable Living Trust? A revocable living trust (RLT), sometimes called a revocable trust or living trust, is an alternative to a will. It’s a document that instructs a trustee on how to manage the client’s assets during the

Portability and Married Couples: A Viable Option

Posted by Robert L. Arone For maximum benefit, estate planning should happen as a team effort, with CPAs, insurance professionals, financial advisors, and attorneys working together strategically and cooperatively. When it comes to helping married couples plan, today’s strategies need to be considerably more thoughtful than in previous years. Although the estate tax exemption is ever increasing, portability is still an important option, particularly for high net worth clients. Portability Is Here to Stay In fact, there’s really no downside to including portability in a plan, other than having to file a federal estate tax return. In the past, planners did not know whether portability was here to stay and were hesitant to rely on its benefits. However, at the beginning of 2013, portability laws became “permanent” under the American Tax Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA). It is now an essential part of estate and financial planning. Portability provides estate

Coordinate Retirement and Estate Planning For Improved Client Relationships

Posted by Robert L. Arone Retirement accounts are designed to help make the transition between working and retiring easier. They provide a steady stream of income for retirees who are suddenly without take-home pay for the first time in their lives. These accounts require extra planning and consideration since, unlike other assets your clients may have, retirement account distributions are subject to income tax for the account owner and the designated beneficiary after the owner’s death. It is important that any plans for retirement match up with the plans a person has for their estate. Of course, planning for retirement assets is often motivated by different goals than estate planning because of income taxes. It is critical that financial advisors take the opportunity to talk with their clients about the differences when meeting for a review of their plans. By having long-standing relationships with clients, you have unique insight into

Accounting Methods for Cryptocurrency Trades & Sales

By Eric P. Rothenberg, Esq. – (Published Article) The world of cryptocurrency transactions was changed dramatically at the end of 2017 when the Internal Revenue Code [“IRC”] was modified to remove all types of assets eligible for Tax Free Exchanges under IRC Section 1031 [also known as “1031 Transactions] EXCEPT for real estate. Prior to 2018, you could exchange farm animals, rail cars and office equipment, etc. After 2017, only real estate will qualify. In my previous articles on cryptocurrency tax aspects, I discussed that the IRS has treated, since 2014, all cryptocurrency as “property” and not as either currency or security. The SEC, however, does treat it as a security, and FinCEN, the short name of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a department within the US Treasury, treats it as currency. With three differing views of the same intangible object, confusion abounds. PRIOR LAW Prior to 2018, you

Want to Connect with Your Clients? Make It Simple

Posted by Robert L. Arone Estate planning is a complex, nuanced process. Properly done, it requires a specialized team of experts in investment, tax, and legal strategy. At its center, however, is the client and their particular needs, hopes, and goals. It’s vital that over the course of working together, you engage your client and help them gain comfort and understanding of the process. Delving into a client’s plan together is a great opportunity to interact more closely. Be an Active Listener As an experienced financial advisor, you may feel as if you’ve heard and seen it all. But every client is unique. Each one’s story, background, goals, hopes and fears are different, and it’s up to you to ensure you’re getting all the necessary information before proceeding with the next steps. If you’re not entering client consultations with the goal of being an active listener, you could be setting

Articles

The Revocable Living Trust: Helping Clients, Growing Your Practice

Portability and Married Couples: A Viable Option

Coordinate Retirement and Estate Planning For Improved Client Relationships

Accounting Methods for Cryptocurrency Trades & Sales

Want to Connect with Your Clients? Make It Simple

How Can We Help?

© 2025 by Orsi Arone Rothenberg Turner, LLP. All rights reserved.

Attorney Marketing by Bardorf Legal Marketing

Have A Question?

Articles

The Revocable Living Trust: Helping Clients, Growing Your Practice

Portability and Married Couples: A Viable Option

Coordinate Retirement and Estate Planning For Improved Client Relationships

Accounting Methods for Cryptocurrency Trades & Sales

Want to Connect with Your Clients? Make It Simple

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How Can We Help?

© 2025 by Orsi Arone Rothenberg Turner, LLP. All rights reserved.

Attorney Marketing by Bardorf Legal Marketing

Have A Question?