In honor of tomorrow's Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, today's post was inspired by "The Three Sisters" of indigenous North American agriculture.

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The Haudenosaunee and Iroquois tribes (and many others since) used "interplanting" to maximize the use of the land and take advantage of the symbiotic relationship between corn (maize), beans and squash. Nitrates from the beans help the corn and squash grow. The corn stalks provide a natural lattice up which the beans can climb and flourish. Underneath those, the leaves of the squash shade the ground, keep the soil hydrated and slow the growth of weeds.

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Our Tale isn't as harmonious for all of our "three sisters" but highlights how you still have to tend to the crops (or in our case, keep an eye on your planning) if you want results for which you can be thankful.

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Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

The first instalment of our new "Did You Know" series focuses on the U.S. federal excise tax on insurance premium paid to a "foreign" insurer on "U.S. risk".

What you don't know CAN hurt you!

How is My Wedding Anniversary Business Related?

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Nine years ago today in A Little White Chapel in Las Vegas, my incredible wife Nina said "I do". No doubt, I was the luckiest man in town that night (and every day and night since), but how is that business related?

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It turns out our love story has a lot to do with planning for Global Citizen clients.

Just like in the markets, fear and greed play a factor in the life insurance industry. These emotional states can motivate clients to plan; which is a positive thing. To hijack the immortal words of Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street, for procrastinating clients "Greed, and fear, for lack of better words, are good."

For life insurance professionals planning for Global Citizen clients, managing fear and greed is also important. While being aware of what one doesn't know is good, being fearful of it isn't; especially when there are resources available to help. With respect to the greed side, the mission should be to design sound custom solutions not just close product sales.

Filing my new company's BOIR with FinCEN (like a good compliant tax geek like me should) inspired our next post.

If you have Global Citizen clients, CTA adds just another reason to review existing planning, including holding structures for life insurance and investments.

Inspired (in a reversed/opposite kind of way) by today's Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day holiday in the United States, this post speaks to emigration/immigration planning, but really boils down to the importance of expanded fact finding when planning for Global Citizen clients. 

Today's post looks at the various "death tax" regimes around the world.

In honor of our daughter Laura, who wrote and produced a play that the UMass Boston's Department of Performing Arts is performing tonight, Friday and Saturday, the piece has a theatre theme.

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Good night, good night, parting is such sweet sorrow....

Today, Claudia Sheinbaum became Mexico's first female President (and, indeed, the first female President in the history of North America).  She certainly has her work cut out for her and hopefully she will be an effective leader for the country.

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That said, the milestone provides an opportunity for professional advisors to connect (or reconnect) with affluent Mexican clients, discuss potential planning concerns, review existing planning and consider new strategies.  

As a tribute to my incredible wife and kids and our extended family in São Paulo, our first Country Focus piece had to be about Brazil!!!

Em homenagem a minha incrível esposa, meus filhos e nossa família em São Paulo, nosso primeiro artigo no Country Focus claro que tinha que ser sobre o Brasil!!!

"The Great Wealth Transfer" is a hot topic in the planning world and while it seems a lot is said about "who" will be on the receiving end, at PAG Consulting we think it is equally, if not more, important to also talk about "to where" the wealth will be transferred.

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Since the wealth in question will surely include both intangible and tangible property (e.g., real estate, vehicles, art), the "where" in our latest piece doesn't simply refer to the physical location of the assets composing the wealth, but also includes the jurisdiction(s) to which the ownership and/or rights to the wealth are transferred (as may be determined by the residency, citizenship and/or domiciliary status of the receiving heirs or other means).     

I have been giving a lot of thought over the past few weeks as to which topic the new company's first post should cover.  Despite the title (and the fact I am both a self-proclaimed insurance and tax geek), this piece is not only about tax. 

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While it focuses on the tax treatment of life insurance, it is more about the most common missteps/misconceptions I have seen repeatedly over the last 20 years in the international market; the often automatic application of U.S. life insurance planning concepts and principles to Global Citizen clients, which can have adverse legal, reputational and other consequences; not just one (or more) unexpected tax bills. 

According to Abraham Maslow, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail."   PAG Consulting has a lot more than a hammer to help build the optimal multi-jurisdictional life insurance solution and the toolbox is now open.