by Michael Rapps | Aug 28, 2026 | Hidden Basis
My grandfather boiled his eggs in a tin can to save the gas.He turned off light switches behind people mid-sentence. He lived past a hundred and, as far as I know, never once ate a meal in a restaurant. He’d grown up with nothing, and the nothing never fully left him...
by Michael Rapps | Aug 14, 2026 | Hidden Basis
A successor trustee called me eighteen months into the job, technically with a question about an investment account.We spent ten minutes on the account. We spent an hour on everything else.She was administering her mother’s trust for herself and two siblings. On...
by Michael Rapps | Jul 31, 2026 | Hidden Basis
A father offered to pay the premiums on a life insurance policy for his newly married son. Generous, obviously. He also kept himself as the owner of the policy.Another client set up a separate account for her daughter — funded quietly, growing nicely — that the...
by Michael Rapps | Jul 17, 2026 | Hidden Basis
I’ve been writing this newsletter for a few months now, and as I look at what the issues have shared in common, there’s a thread I want to name directly in this one.Every issue has circled the same observation: the technical work we do is only part of the...
by Michael Rapps | Jul 2, 2026 | Hidden Basis
Early in my career, I built a plan that did exactly what my client asked for and almost nothing she actually wanted. The whole gap came down to a single word.She was in her late sixties, very successful, deciding what to leave her children, and she told me she wanted...
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...
