Insights · Quarterly memos & annual outlook

Quarterly memos. Annual outlook. Distributed to clients and qualified prospects.

Four quarterly tax-strategy memos and one annual outlook per year. Restrained, technical, no marketing language. Distributed by mail to clients and a small list of qualified prospects on request.

2026 annual outlook · Featured

The $13.6M-per-couple question.

Our 56-page annual outlook examining the lifetime estate-and-gift exemption sunset, the post-sunset legislative landscape, and the four most-leveraged moves available to households between $20M and $150M during 2026.

No. VIII.

2026 annual outlook

The 2017 lifetime exemption sunsets December 31, 2025 — cutting available exemption from approximately $13.6M per individual to roughly $7M (inflation-adjusted). For high-net-worth households, this is the largest single tax-policy event in a generation, and 2026 is the cleanup year.

Inside: the four moves we believe households should evaluate before year-end — ranked by leverage, complexity, and execution time — plus a chapter on what the post-sunset legislative landscape likely looks like through the 2028 election cycle.

56 pages Bound + digital Distributed Q1 2026
Annual outlook

The $13.6M-per-couple question

2026
Your Business · January 2026 · No. VIII
Quarterly memos

Four memos per year, numbered.

Each quarterly memo runs roughly 18–28 pages, focuses on one tax-strategy theme, and arrives at clients on the first business day of the quarter.

No. XXIX.
Q1 · 2026

Sunset cleanup: the four moves.

Sunset is over. The exemption is roughly $7M per individual. Here are the four cleanup moves we recommend evaluating in Q1 — ranked by leverage, complexity, and execution time.

The 2025 sunset has come and gone; for households that did not act, the exemption is materially smaller, but several mitigation paths remain. We walk through reciprocal SLAT post-mortems, IDGT installment-sale strategies for households that missed the window, and the GST tax-allocation question.

No. XXVIII.
Q4 · 2025

Year-end: seventeen decision items.

The annual Q4 memo. Seventeen specific decision items that must be resolved before December 31. Roman-numeraled, with a deadline column.

The most-cited memo we publish. Seventeen items spanning loss-harvesting, RMD/Roth conversion timing, charitable-transfer execution, gift-tax-return prep, and a brief section on the practical realities of moving deferred comp to a different state mid-year.

No. XXVII.
Q3 · 2025

QSBS at scale.

Section 1202 is the most underused provision in the founder tax code. We walk through qualification mechanics, the $10M / 10x basis question, and the Section 1045 rollover playbook.

Drawn from 87 founder engagements aggregating $1.2B of qualified gain. The memo includes our internal qualification-opinion template, the documentation pack we deliver for IRS exam defense, and a discussion of stacking strategies with non-grantor trusts.

No. XXVI.
Q2 · 2025

The multi-state nexus map.

Day-counting, source-of-income, and trust-residency analysis — the three threads that determine state-tax exposure for households with property in more than one state.

For multi-state households, state liability often dominates federal. The memo covers the day-counting practice, source-of-income tests by state, and the increasingly aggressive states (NY, CA, MA) that audit residency claims with depositions and credit-card subpoenas.

No. XXV.
Q1 · 2025

The cross-border founder.

For founders with non-US passports or dual residency, the tax stack is materially different. Treaty positioning, GILTI exposure, and the Section 877A pre-expatriation question.

Drawn from our 52-household cross-border book. We cover the standing US treaties, the practical day-counting rules, the FBAR/FATCA reporting cascade, and Section 877A modeling for clients evaluating expatriation.

No. XXIV.
Q4 · 2024

Charitable as architecture.

DAFs are now table stakes. The interesting questions live one level up: when does a CLT beat a CRUT, and when does a private foundation start to make sense.

For households giving 6–12% of NLW per year, the vehicle question matters more than the recipient question. We walk through the lifecycle math on each vehicle and discuss the under-discussed qualified-appreciated-stock optimization.

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