Peter Myers' Blog

Client vs. Adviser Loyalty: Must It Be and Adverse Relationship?

Client Loyalty: An Anecdote

Client loyalty can be difficult— on at least one occasion, I’ve had to write a client to share discovery of an investment manager’s malpractice.  In my litigation past, I have had to sue lawyers, accountants, bankers, and investment advisers for fraud, elder financial abuse, unsuitable advice, mistakes, and breaches of fiduciary duty and loyalty.  It is never pleasant to be in such a lawsuit, and there are no winners.

So how the heck do we deal with this while trying to build a referral network?  Who wants to refer a client to a lawyer who might sue them?

Who the Heck Are Our Clients, Really?

Ideal Circumstance for Attorney-Client Relationship

I get a lot of calls from people inside my social circles who want me to teach a seminar or host an event that has something loosely to do with money.  The conversation almost inevitably boils down to a few basic questions: (1) by the way, what exactly do you do? [to make a living, that is]; (2) who hires you to do that? [aka, "could the world be so specialized that there is a demand for your arcane services?]

In this little blawg I'm going to write about this.  I'll use the "liquidity event" motif as exemplary, but not exclusive to this issue.

Attention All Life Insurance Professionals: a Friendly Colleague Wants to Work With You

Yes, totally unconventional title, I know.  But look: life insurance pros and The Myers Law Firm share a lot in common: we have the unpleasant but necessary task of discussing uncomfortable things with people about protecting what they have for the people they love.  On the one hand - talking about leaving a legacy and overcoming your mortality, caring for your loved ones - its God's work.  On the other - talking about death - yikes!  Where's our robe and scythe?

Should I Disinherit My Estranged Child?

A good friend of mine Josh Coleman is, among other things, a world-famous therapist in the genre known as 'control mastery theory,' which is a branch of psychotherapy that relies upon nurturing and developing the client's own subconscious plan for mental health.  Just as the body has built-in processes for healing, so does the mind.  As you might imagine, such a philosophy dovetails well with the client-centric estate planning we espouse in our firm and on this blog.  So I am always interested in what Josh has to say about issues of estate planning.

In Dr. Coleman's October newsletter, he posted an answer to the question a client posed whether or not to leave an estranged child out of a will.  I cannot do justice to his answer without quoting it in full, so - with Josh's permission - you will see the entire Q&A reprinted below.

Measuring Out My Life With Coffee Spoons

The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock could well have been written by an old man contemplating his estate plan.  In Prufrock, T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) weaves together the following lines:

For I have known them all already, known them all:—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

The narrator of the poem is reflecting on his long life, and all throughout the City of his narration there is yellow fog, yellow smoke, that is mysterious and unknown, and which nevertheless settles about the house in a sort of restless peace. 

Hey, Daddy, What's a "Trust Mill?"

This question popped up on one of my listserves and Jim Wood, a registered Legal Document Assistant ("LDA") in San Ramon, wrote an excellent response.  With Jim's permission, I have re-posted it here.

Way to go, Jim!

A Guest Post from Bob Alderman

This post was written by my colleague Bob Alderman about an experience he had attending one of Donald Trump's company's "success" events. 

We've all seen these advertised in the papers, sometimes full-page ads with famous people speaking, tickets for $49 (but free if you call right now!), etc.  I've never had the inclination or time to attend one, but in the back of my mind I wondered how they could possibly make enough money to pay for the expensive advertising and the famous people who appeared to have endorsed the sponsor.

Now I get it.  Here's Bob:

Help With Habitat for Humanity

As some of you know, I have a philanthropic bent to my practice which can consume me at all the "wrong" times (at least from the metric of personal microeconomic gain).  How is it that we seem to go through periods of time where we see with greater clarity what makes life important and then revert to actually answering phone calls from bucket shops with hot stock picks?  (One sure way to try to get rid of those calls is to sell them YOUR services when they call you - "hey, I draft wills and trusts; do you have one?  No?  Look, that's really irresponsible, you know.  What if something happens to you on the way home from work?"  Click).

But charities have a way of drawing us in.  First, if the cause is noble, we are in a fairly good position to actually help them.  Although siblings find it incredible, customers and clients pay significant sums for professional services, participation in their lives and commitment - and, what really shocks MY siblings - our clients follow my advice.  Second, the boards and committees that provide perspective on whether or not a charity is on the right track with their approach, or perhaps is missing an opportunity, or making bad strategic decisions given the current philanthropic climate can use 'outside' advisers from disparate industries from their mission.  And third, enthusiasm for the success of our favorite charities fuels our enthusiasm for the success of our clients.

The Calculus of Tax

Although I probably lacked the maturity to admit it, calculus and physics were two of my favorite subjects in high school.  The 70's, when I was in high school, were not a heady time, but rather were a spacey time.  Remember Timothy Leary ("turn on, tune in, drop out")?  Being the "artist" I perceived myself to be, I thought liking calculus and physics put me among the geeks and nerds who got excited over the density and velocities of snowballs.

Fortunately, I still liked the class and had enough independent thought (independent of Timothy Leary, anyway) to enjoy the classes and do well in the subjects.  One of the principles that both of these subjects teach you is that change in constant and, indeed can be measured.

Yes, I'm still taking the ferry to work whenever I can.  This is a picture of a cruise ship that came into the Bay this Summer.  Summer is a big time for cruising to San Francisco. 

Still No Permanence in Estate Tax

The latest attempt to reform the Estate, Gift and GST tax failed in the Senate by a vote of 56-42 (60 votes are needed to move the legislation to a vote).

The Bill would have amended the Internal Revenue Code to increase the unified credit against the estate tax to an exclusion equivalent of $5,000,000, as well as repeal the sunset provision for the estate and generation-skipping taxes. 

 

That's me on the far left of the photo pretending I can play golf.  Trevor, Linda and I were debating the estate tax with Joe Harriburta (far right), President of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, between holes.