Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog

Planning for the Last Goodbye

More funerals now focus on celebrating the decedent’s life in a more personalized, less religious way. The internet has helped change funerals and the funeral planning process by streaming funeral services online, offering online tutorials to help individuals choose between burial or cremation, and helping individuals plan funerals through various websites. On such website, MyWonderfulLife.com, offers trend and themed funeral ideas.

More people are also taking a proactive role when it comes to planning their owns funerals. It is not uncommon to hear stories of mothers who planned their own funerals for years or of fathers writing their own obituaries. While some people may find the idea of planning their own funerals macabre, many others find joy and comfort in planning their final party.

See Kathleen A. Hughes, Planning That Final Party, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 31, 2011.

Protecting Perpetual Conservation Easements

Cameron Johnson (2011 J.D. candidate, University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of law), recently published his note entitled Perpetuating Perpetuity, 31 Utah Envtl. L. Rev. 437 (2011). An abstract of the note is below:

TET is the only known example of a land trust that has become bankrupt in the United States. Its failure raises a series of critical questions about the management and mechanics of conservation easements. The organization's failure brings the potential difficulty of protecting land in perpetuity by means of a conservation easement sharply into focus. The issue of maintaining perpetual conservation easements raises numerous unanswered questions. For example, the bankruptcy court's suggested chain of succession for the easements and lands that TET held is logical, but one wonders if this is the most effective way to guarantee that those assets will be protected in perpetuity. Are there other tools or legal mechanisms available to land trusts to avoid a fate similar to TET's? Is perpetuity a realistic legal timeline for any conservation easement? What can a land trust do to help ensure its own longevity and fulfill its duty to manage a conservation easement for perpetuity? Do local or state governments have a duty to play a more prominent role in the selection and administration of conservation easements? These are questions lawyers and government officials must begin to confront and examine if conservation easements are to continue as the most popular method of private land conservation for years to come. Put more succinctly by Mike Kelly of the San Diego Conservation Resources Network, "[w]e have two problems-what to do with these particular parcels of land and . . . how to prevent similar (failure) in the future." This Note seeks to begin that conversation by exploring these questions.

Super Committee May Reduce Deficit by Targeting Gift Tax

The twelve-member Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction (the Super Committee) has the task of finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions over ten years by reducing expenditures and increasing revenues. According to Handler Thayer LLP, the 2012 gift tax exclusion may be at risk.

Some speculate that the Super Committee will reduce the threshold for GST and estate tax to $3.5 million and will reduce the gift tax threshold to $1 million. Dave Berek, Partner in the Advanced Planning and Family Office of Prative Group at Handler Thayer, LLP said:

Given the current 'Buffett Rules' tax-the-rich environment, overall tax planning and gift tax thresholds that are now available could be at risk for families. We recommend engaging in planning sooner rather than later; not much good can come from the committee's recommendations from a wealth preservation perspective.

See Handler Thayer LLP Tax Alert: LEGISLATIVE RISK—Super Committee Warrants Immediate Consideration of Your Long and Short Term Estate Planning by Year End, MarketWatch.com, Oct. 27, 2011; Adam Bair, Super Committee May Target Gift Tax For Deficit Reduction, Wealth Strategies Journal 2.0, Oct. 28, 2011.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.

Top SSRN Downloads

Here are the top downloads from August 31, 2011 to October 30, 2011 from the SSRN Journal of Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law for all papers announced in the last 60 days.

Rank	Downloads	Paper Title
1	299	Excluding Expert Valuation Testimony Wendy C. Gerzog, University of Baltimore - School of Law, Date posted to database: September 26, 2011 Last Revised: September 26, 2011
2	170	Anticipating Will Contests and How to Avoid Them Gerry W. Beyer, Texas Tech University School of Law, Date posted to database: September 10, 2011 Last Revised: September 10, 2011
3	160	Conservation Easements and the Doctrine of Merger Nancy A. McLaughlin, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Date posted to database: September 7, 2011 Last Revised: September 29, 2011
4	146	To Own or not Own Your Life Insurance Policy? David Joulfaian, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Date posted to database: August 28, 2011 Last Revised: August 30, 2011
5	111	Case Law Update Gerry W. Beyer, Texas Tech University School of Law, Date posted to database: September 24, 2011 Last Revised: September 24, 2011
6	92	Nonprobate Assets Bridget J. Crawford, Rachel Schwartzman, Pace University School of Law, Unaffiliated Authors - affiliation not provided to SSRN, Date posted to database: August 31, 2011 Last Revised: August 31, 2011
7	81	A Revised Canadian Test for Fact-Based Fiduciary Accountability Robert Flannigan, University of Saskatchewan, Date posted to database: October 6, 2011 Last Revised: October 6, 2011
8	70	Passing Estate Tax Values Through the Eye of a Needle Calvin H. Johnson, Joseph M. Dodge, University of Texas at Austin - School of Law, Florida State University - College of Law, Date posted to database: September 2, 2011 Last Revised: September 19, 2011
9	69	The Federal Arbitration Act and Testamentary Instruments David Horton, Loyola Marymount University - Loyola Law School Los Angeles, Date posted to database: August 29, 2011 Last Revised: October 18, 2011
10	59	When and Why Does Unjustified Enrichment Justify the Recognition of Proprietary Rights? Robert Stevens, University College London - Faculty of Laws, Date posted to database: September 21, 2011 Last Revised: September 22, 2011

How Steve Jobs Drove Without License Plates

For years, many people wondered how Steve Jobs got away with driving his silver Mercedes SL55 AMG without license plates. Rumors existed that Jobs either was daring the California police to pull him over or that California authorities had given Jobs a special dispensation.

ITWire interviewed a former Apple security executive and discovered the real reason for the missing plates: California gives car owners six months to get license plates for new vehicles, and Jobs would have his leasing company switch out his silver Mercedes every six months for a new, identical model.

See Justin Hyde, Latest Steve Jobs Mystery Revealed: How He Drove Without License Plates, Yahoo! Autos, Oct. 27, 2011.

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this to my attention.

Happy Halloween

Many law school classes have one or more holidays which are especially relevant. For example, Family Law has Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and Father's Day, Labor Law has Labor Day, Environmental Law has Earth Day, Military Law has Memorial Day, and Law and Religion has Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, etc.

Halloween, with its fascination with death, may be the most relevant holiday to those who teach wills, trusts, estates, probate, and estate planning.

So, however you celebrate, have fun and be safe!

Richard Egan's Estate Receives Forty Percent Penalty

The legal team defending Richard Egan, the founder of Fidelity International Currency Advisors, witnessed a victory last December when they were able to disallow $65,896.10 of the $220,944.65 in litigation expenses the federal government attempted to charge them with. However, Egan still had to pay $80 million in tax and penalty for its doomed tax shelter.

The legal team attempted to cut the $80 million penalty in half. The IRS argued, however, that a 40% penalty for gross valuation misstatements applied. On October 21, 2011, the United State Court of Appeals for the First Circuit agreed with the IRS and applied a 40% penalty against Richard Egan's Estate.

For an overview of this decision see Peter J. Reil, Richard Egan Estate Subject to 40% Penalty on Doomed Shelter, Forbes, Oct. 28, 2011.

A Historic Look at Wills and Trusts

Neil Jones (Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge) recently published his article entitled Wills, Trusts and Trusting from the Statute of Uses to Lord Nottingham, 31 J. of Legal History 273 (2010). The abstract available on SSRN is below:

Medieval feoffments to the uses of a last will provided, in effect, a power to devise freehold land, otherwise generally impossible at common law. The Statute of Uses 1536 put an end to this mechanism, and in 1540 the Statute of Wills provided, within limits, a substitute power to devise. But conveyances inter vivos upon trust for the performance of wills continued to be made after 1540; and the distinction in practice between such trusts and wills was less clear than might be supposed: wills under the statutory power were understood as conveyances; executors were frequently trustees in a narrow sense; and the perception that executors were, in a broader sense, trusted, had substantive effects. In understanding wills, trusts and trusting after the Statute of Uses, distinctions between those who are 'trustees' and those who are not, or between conveyances upon trust and wills, may be an essential starting-point in bringing order to the sources, but cannot fully reflect the complexity of contemporary arrangements.

Digital-Property Stored on the Cloud

According to a recent UK survey of 2,000 internet users, internet users collectively store at least $3.2 billion worth of personal videos, music, photos, and books in the cloud. Over half of those surveyed considered digital property like their Kindles, iTunes, online photos, and even online avatars to be “treasured possession,” but less than one-third realized that their password-protected digital property was stored by a third party or that they were even using the so-called cloud.

After hearing of the survey, Fabio Trolini, VP of Cloud at Rackspace said, "The cloud is becoming more and more part of our everyday work and personal life. [With the large investment Internet users] seem to be making in digital treasures, it's imperative that people consider the associated security and legacy implications."

Helen A.S. Popkin, Who Gets Your Internet Passwords When You Die?, MSNBC, Oct. 13, 2011.

 

Article on Conservation Easements and the Doctrine of Merger

Nancy A. McLaughlin (Professor of Law, University of Utah, S.J. Quinncey Colleg of Law) recently published her article entitled Conservation Easements and the Doctrine of Merger, 74 Duke J. of Law & Contemp. Prob. (2011). The abstract available on SSRN is below:

 

Conservation easements raise a number of interesting legal issues, not the least of which is whether a conservation easement is automatically extinguished pursuant to the real property law doctrine of merger if its government or nonprofit holder acquires title to the encumbered land. This article explains that merger generally should not occur in such cases because the unity of ownership that is required for the doctrine to apply typically will not be present. This article also explains that extinguishing conservation easements that continue to provide significant benefits to the public through the doctrine of merger would be contrary to the conservation and historic preservation policies that underlie the state enabling statutes and the federal and state easement purchase and tax incentive programs.

The Importance of Updating Estate Plans

In the Editor’s Note of the September 2011 issue of Private Wealth, Hannah Shaw Grove discusses the need for individuals to update their estate plans. Grove notes that, according to the media, Amy Winehouse had a very up-to-date estate plan that will dispose of her $16 million fortune in the way she specified.

Groves explains that all individuals, both those in the middle class and those that are ultra-affluent, tend to be lax when it comes to updating estate plans. In a survey of 294 affluent professionals, of the 58.8% who had estate plans, 91.9% and 50.3% had witnessed an increase in wealth or a life changing event, respectively, since the plan was drafted. Groves encourages estate planning attorneys to discuss updating estate plans with their clients and to schedule meetings to discuss their clients’ estate planning efforts.

See Hannah Shaw Grove, Rocking the Estate Plan, Private Wealth (September 2011).

ABA Opinions Regarding Electronic Communications

The American Bar Association released two Formal Opinion on August 4, 2011: Formal Opinion 11-459 "Duty to Protect the Confidentiality of Email Communications with One's Client" and Formal Opinion 11-460: Duty when Lawyer Receives Copies of a Third Party's E-mail Communications with Counsel. A summary of the Opinions are below:

Formal Opinion 11-459: Duty to Protect the Confidentiality of Email Communications with One's Client

Under Rule 1.6(a), attorneys must refrain from revealing “information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent.” Additionally, attorneys have a duty to “provide competent representation of a client” under Rule 1.1.

In 1999, the ABA concluded that an attorney does not violate his duties under Rule 1.6(a) by sending information relating to a client’s representation by unencrypted e-mail (it warned, however, that disclosures of highly sensitive matters require strong protective measures).

Courts have been divided on whether a client-employee’s client-attorney communications sent by or stored on a workplace computer are privileged. The ABA concludes that the attorney should advise the employee-client as to the importance of keeping e-mail communications with the attorney confidential, and that the attorney should advise the client to not use a workplace devise or system for sensitive communications.

An attorney likely has an ethical duty to warn a client against using a workplace device or system for attorney-client communication when:

1. that the client has engaged in, or has indicated an intent to engage in, e-mail communications with counsel
2. that the client is employed in a position that would provide access to a workplace device or system;
3. that, given the circumstances, the employer or a third party has the ability to access the e-mail communications; and
4. that, as far as the lawyer knows, the employer’s internal policy and the jurisdiction’s laws do not clearly protect the privacy of the employee’s personal e-mail communications via a business device or system.

The ABA also noted that "[u]nless a lawyer has reason to believe otherwise, a lawyer ordinarily should assume that an employer’s internal policy allows for access to the employee’s e-mails sent to or from a workplace device or system.”

Formal Opinion 11-460: Duty when Lawyer Receives Copies of a Third Party's E-mail Communications with Counsel

Rule 4.4(b) makes clear that “a lawyer who receives a document relating to the representation of the lawyer’s client and knows or reasonably should know that the document was inadvertently sent shall promptly notify the sender.” However, the rule does not expressly address a situation in which an employee provides opposing counsel with copies of the employee's private communications with counsel, which the employee located in the employer’s workplace computer, email system, or other device.

The ABA has declined to interpret Rule 4.4(b) to require notice to the opposing counsel in the above situation, but notes that other law may impose a duty to notify.

If other governing law is unclear as to when disclosure is necessary, the ABA notes that

Rule 1.6(b)(6) allows the employer’s lawyer to disclose that the employer has retrieved the employee’s attorney-client e-mail communications to the extent he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to comply with the relevant law, even if the legal obligation is not free from doubt. On the other hand, if no law can reasonably be read as establishing a reporting obligation, then the decision whether to give notice must be made by the employer-client.

However, the ABA suggests that giving notice and obtaining a judicial ruling is often in the employer-client’s best interest even when there is no clear notification obligation. The attorney must follow Rules 1.0(e), 1.4(b), and 1.6(a) when explaining the risks of disqualification or other sanctions to the client to enable the client to make an informed decision.

See ABA Releases Opinions Regarding Electronic Communications, Wealth Strategies Journal 2.0, Oct. 26, 2011.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing these to my attention.

Fairness to Home Equity Conversion Mortgages

Andrew C. Helman (2010 J.D. Candidate, University of Maine School of Law) recently published his article entitled Putting Equity Back in Reverse Mortgages: How State Legislatures Can Bring Fairness to Home Equity Conversion Mortgages, 12 Marq. Elder’s Advisor 415 (Spring 2011). An excerpt from the introduction is below:

For many of today's seniors, life began in the shadow of the Great Depression, and life will end in the shadow of the Great Recession. Meanwhile, seniors' incomes tend to be stagnant, especially with the recent economic downturn, and the problem is compounded by rising expenses for basic needs such as gas, oil, and groceries, as well as all-important medical expenses. This trend is particularly problematic in a state like Maine, which is the grayest state in the nation. Coupled with the ever-increasing number of baby-boomers approaching retirement, Maine and many other states are at a crossroad: How do policy-makers ensure seniors can retire with dignity, in spite of a down economy, evaporating wealth, and diminished resources for social welfare programs?

Answering that question is not easy, and there are two major directions to take - either relying on the public sector or turning to the private sector. Many states have tried to marshal public sector resources to help seniors with rising property taxes. For example, the Maine Legislature created a program to provide targeted relief to some seniors by calling on the state government to pay municipal property taxes in exchange for priority liens enforceable upon the transfer or death of the property owner. But the public sector proved unable to bear this financial burden, and the program was phased out as the Maine Legislature struggled with budgetary matters in the wake of a shutdown of state government in 1991.

Given the stark economic realities facing the state and federal governments, it is worth asking whether the private sector might be better-equipped to bear this burden, and if so, to what extent government can channel private sector resources to help seniors? The private sector presents several options for senior homeowners - for example, sale, sale-leaseback, retaining a life-estate, a support mortgage, or a reverse mortgage - and there are pros and cons to each, ranging from financial feasibility for sales or sale-leasebacks to the need to curb abusive and misleading practices for reverse mortgages. But in light of emerging data showing that the vast majority of seniors would prefer to age in place and the difficulty many seniors would face generating substantial income from limited equity freed in a sale, sale-leaseback, or sale of all but a life-estate, a reverse mortgage may present a promising option.

Ruling in Madoff Case

During the six years before Bernard L. Madoff’s money-management firm went bankrupt in 2008, Madoff’s family withdrew $141 million from the firm (less than $59 million was taken during the two years preceding the bankruptcy).

A recent ruling limited the bankruptcy trustee to claiming only two years of withdraws from the Ponzi scheme. This ruling allows Madoff’s family to keep almost $82 million of the money they withdrew.

Currently, Maddoff is serving a 150 year sentence for his involvement in the largest Ponzi scheme in American history.

See Linda Sandler, Ruling Would Give Madoff Family $28M: Trustee, Bloomberg, Oct. 27, 2011.

Special thanks to Son Trinh (2012 J.D. Candidate, Texas Tech University School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.

End of Life in Italy

Kathy L. Cerminara (Professor of law, Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Board Law Center), Federico Gustavo Pizzetti (Professor of law, University degli Studi di Milano), and Watcharin H. Photangtham recently published their article entitled, Schiavo Revisited? The Struggle for Autonomy at the End of Life in Italy, 12 Marq. Elder's Advisor 295 (2011). The abstract available on SSRN is below:

Politically strident debates surrounding end-of-life decisionmaking have surfaced once again, this time across the Atlantic in Italy. Eluana Englaro died early this year after a prolonged court fight, causing the international press to compare her case to that of Theresa Marie Schiavo, who passed away in 2005 in Florida after nearly sparking constitutional crises on both state and federal levels. In many respects, the facts of Ms. Englaro’s case are similar to Schiavo, but a close analysis of Englaro leads to the surprising conclusion that the Italian Court of Cassazione in that case actually enunciated a broader, stronger right to make end-of-life decisions than has the United States Supreme Court thus far in America.

The parallels between Englaro and Schiavo have not solely been judicial, however. In a number of ways, despite the breadth of the judicial decisions in Englaro, institutional differences seem to be leading Italy down a different path in the Parliament than the United States has taken through its several legislatures. Despite the introduction of advance directive legislation in Parliament, it seems as if Italy’s path toward patients’ preserving robust end-of-life decisionmaking power even in incompetency lies not through that body in the future but through that body’s past actions. If the current proposed legislation fails, it is possible that patients and the courts can build upon the groundwork the courts have established through the Italian constitution in combination with the statutory tool of the amministratore di sostegno to secure robust patient autonomy near the end of life.

Top Earning Dead Celebrities

Forbes recently released its list of the fifteen top earning dead celebrities. The celebrities who made it on the list earned a combined $366 million from October 2010 to October 2011. The top earners and their respective annual earnings are below:

• 2. Michael Jackson (tie)—$275 million
• 2. Elvis Presley (tie)—$55 million
• 3. Marilyn Monroe—$27 million
• 4. Charles Schulz—$25 million
• 5. Elizabeth Taylor (tie)—$12 million
• 5. John Lennon (tie)—$12 million
• 7. Albert Einstein—$10 million
• 8. Theodor Geisel—$9 million
• 9. Jimi Hendrix (tie)—$7 million
• 9. Stieg Larsson (tie)—$7 million
• 9. Steve McQueen (tie)—$7 million
• 9. Richard Rodgers (tie)—$7 million
• 13. George Harrison (tie)—$6 million
• 13. Bettie Page (tie)—$6 million
• 13. Andy Warhol (tie)—$6 million

See Dorothy Pomerantz, The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, Forbes, Oct. 25, 2011; The 15 Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, Forbes (2011).

Generating Revenue by Repealing the Estate Tax

Forbes recently published an article written by Stephen J. Entin (president, The Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation) and Dick Patten (president, The American Family Business Foundation) that proposes that a repeal of the estate tax would generate enough revenue over a ten year period to cover almost a third of the current $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction.

The authors conducted a study to prove that a repeal of the estate tax would generate more revenue than an increase in the tax would. The study was commissioned by the American Family Business Foundation (which opposes the tax) and was conducted at the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation.

Entin and Patten also assert that a repeal of the estate tax would lead to a 2.26% increase in GDP by 2021 ($538 billion) compared to the estimated GDP for 2021 as estimated under the current law. Entin and Petten also claim that a repeal would increase federal revenues to almost $362 billion over a ten year period, with an annual gain of $88 billion per year by 2021.

See Stephen J. Entin and Dick Patten, To Reduce the Deficit, Kill the Estate Tax, Forbes, Oct. 25, 2011.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention. 

Increases in Long-Term Care Costs

According to the 2011 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, and Home Care Costs, the cost of long-term care is continuing to increase. Some of the figures published in the survey are below:

• Private nursing home room rates increased 4.4% to $87,235 a year ($239 per day)
• Semi-private nursing home room rates also increased 4.4% to $78,110 a year ($214 per day)
• Semi-private nursing home rooms in an Alzheimer’s wing increased to an average of $81,030 a year
• Assisted living facility costs increased 5.6% on average to $41,724 a year ($3,477 per month)
• Adult care services costs increase 4.5% to $70 per day
• The cost of private nursing home rooms and assisted living in 2011 was highest in Alaska and Washington, D.C., respectively.
• The lowest private nursing home rooms and assisted living rates were in Louisiana and Arkansas, respectively.

See Average Cost of Private Nursing Home Rooms Tops $87,000 a Year, Elder Law Answers, Oct. 25, 2011 (citing 2011 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, and Home Care Costs).

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCousnel) for bringing this article to my attention.

Ten Strange Send-Offs

Sometimes when individual die, they leave behind unusual requests for their send-offs. For example, Arch West, creator of Doritos, asked to have Dorito chips scattered into his grave. Ten more strange send-off requests are below:

1. Frederic Baur (creator of the Pringles tube) requested that his remains be stored in, you guessed it, a Pringles tube.
2. Malcolm McLaren (the Sex Pistols’ former manager) requested his coffin be spray painted to say “too fast to live, too young to die,” asked for four black horses to bring his coffin to a deconsecrated church, and requested a “minute of mayhem” in lieu of a moment of silence.
3. Gene Roddenbery (creator of Star Trek) had his remains launched into space in 1997. His remains re-entered the atmosphere in 2002.
4. Hunter S. Thompson (the gonzo journalist) had his ashes fired from a cannon (paid for by his friend Johnny Depp) from a 150 foot tower topped with the symbol of Thompson’s journalism.
5. Tupac Shakur (rap artist) allegedly asked his rap group to mix his remains with marijuana and smoke them. The group claims to have followed Shakur’s request, but Shakur’s family says the rapper’s remains are closes guarded.
6. Eugene Shoemaker (one of three people who discovered the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet) had some of his remains sent to the moon on the Lunar Prospector in 1999.
7. Frank Sinatra had a bottle of whiskey, a Zippo lighter, and ten dimes included in his coffin. The ten dimes, it’s reported, were for any emergency phone class.
8. The wife of Brian Tandy (a geologist) had her husband’s remains turned into three synthetic canary yellow diamonds for her and their two daughters.
9. Elizabeth Taylor, a fan of being fashionably late, stipulated that she wanted her funeral services to begin fifteen minutes after the scheduled time.
10. Sandra West (a Beverly Hill’s socialite) left a hand written request to be buried in a lacy nightgown, while sitting in the front seat of her blue Ferrari.

See Kate Dailey, 10 Surprising Final Send-Offs, BBC News Magazine, Sep. 27, 2011.

Special thanks to Susan N. Gary (Orlando J. and Marian H. Hollis Professor of Law, University of Oregon School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.

Helping Clients Steer Clear of Destructive Financial Behavior

During the NAPFA Practice Management & Investments conference in New York on Tuesday, Russell James (associate professor in Texas Tech University’s division of personal financial planning) discussed ways to prevent clients from engaging in destructive financial behavior. James suggested “focus[ing] on long-term goals by prompting emotion."

James also discussed two ways to influence an individual’s behavior: using pre-commitment strategies and changing a client’s time horizons for saving and investing.

Pre-commitment strategies include changing rewards and penalties for a client’s spending and suggesting client’s pay for luxury items with cash rather than by credit card. James cited a 1998 study to demonstrate that creating a longer time horizon for a client’s saving and investing sometimes correlates with a better financial outcome.

See Donna Mitchell, Helping Clients Be Financially Rational, Financial Planning, Oct. 25, 2011.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.