by Michael Rapps | Jun 19, 2026 | Hidden Basis
About fifteen years ago, fairly early in my career, I was brought in to handle the estate planning for a family that owned a successful business. I hadn’t found them on my own — their longtime CPA and financial advisor had introduced me. I was the newest person...
by Michael Rapps | Jun 5, 2026 | Hidden Basis
I built a plan years ago that held up. Every piece of it. The trusts funded on schedule. The tax savings materialized. Nobody challenged anything. When the client died, the administration was clean. The assets moved exactly where they were supposed to move.And the...
by Michael Rapps | May 21, 2026 | Hidden Basis
A father and son sat on the couch across from me. The son, mid-forties, had done his homework. He’d run the numbers with his CPA. He’d read the articles. He’d brought his own questions, most of them sharp. He was walking his father through why the...
by Michael Rapps | May 8, 2026 | Hidden Basis
A husband and wife sat in my conference room last month, both of them successful, both of them reasonable, neither of them willing to sign the plan.The technical work was done. The trusts were drafted. The structure was sound. What they couldn’t agree on had...
by Michael Rapps | Apr 24, 2026 | Hidden Basis
A couple I’ve known for nearly twenty years sat across from me recently, and I could tell before they said anything that something had shifted. They’d built their plan fifteen years ago around the oldest — the daughter who was going to take over the...
