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Vol. 2 Issue 7 - July 2010 - www.cannonfinancial.com
Planning Ideas - The Graegin Note
 As things stand today, if your wealthiest client dies on or before December 31 of this year, she
escapes federal estate taxes. If she survives until January 1 of next year, she’ll pay $5.5 million
in estate taxes on her $10 million estate. If she’s lucky, and Congress continues the 2009 rates
into 2011, her estate tax bill will drop to only $4.5 million.
Hopefully, you’ve already given thought to how those taxes might get paid without shorting heirs and/or liquidating valuable assets at fire-sale prices. But even if you have engaged in liquidity planning for this client, keep the Graegin note in your arsenal. Read More.
Practice Management -
How Are Your Project Management Skills?
 Most wealth managers start out as specialists in some aspect of personal financial planning. In many cases they
developed expertise as investment advisors, bankers, or insurance brokers early in their careers. Then in order to provide
the holistic services demanded by their more affluent clients, and in an effort to grow their businesses, they tend
to become generalists. To assure that client needs are fully met, the most successful wealth managers assemble teams of specialists to work with them and supplement their abilities outside of their areas of expertise. Read More.
Taxes - Swiss Parliament Approves Treaty: Tax Evaders to Be Identified
 It has been a long and winding road, but based on a tax treaty enacted in mid-June 2010, UBS
will turn over the names of thousands of suspected U.S. tax cheats to the Justice Department,
opening the way for tax fraud charges against the named individuals.
The tax treaty comes in the wake of nearly a year of legal maneuvers and negotiations that
reportedly reached as high as the White House. Many in Switzerland oppose the treaty on the
grounds that it violates a long tradition of secrecy among Swiss private bankers.
Read More
Regulation and Compliance -
New Proposed Rule for Target Date Funds
Target date funds are a popular choice for 401(k) participants and other clients content to turn
over investment decisions for their retirement funds to professional fund managers. In fact, since
their inception in the mid-1990s, assets held by these funds have grown to approximately $270
billion. Target date funds received approximately $43 billion in net new cash flow during 2009, $42
billion during 2008, and $56 billion during 2007, compared to $22 billion in 2005 and $4 billion in
2002. Read More
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