Buried Bequests, I

I feel I'm beginning to become a bit of a connoisseur of curious bequests.  Truly rarely do we see anything like this, though:

A long time Piedmont client recently passed away, and during the reading of the will his family came into a bit of a shock.  A teenage great-nephew had been included in the will, much to everyone's surprise.  The bequest had been actually coded into the will, posed as a challenge to the "industriousness" of the young man:

Unfortunately the young gent remembers little adventure with his great-uncle, other than a few childhood summers at the family's beach cottage outside of Charleston, SC, and after months of brain-racking, has recalled nothing of the "superstition" referred to within.  As a result, he's requested us to throw the puzzle open to all takers - if anything to allow himself to move on.  So click on the image above to work on it yourself.

No one knows what the old man might have gone and done, whether he may have acted rashly (though as a friend of mine, I can vouch he was quite sound in mind), and there's not a resolute enough accounting of his investments over the years to know how significant a sum he may have squirreled away and buried in his backyard.  Knowing him, it's games for growth, but if we're lucky we'll see, the prize to the finder.

BB

January Glories

Who'd have thought we'd be sitting here at the beginning of the new year with barely a cloud to mar our views?  Folks tell me there's not a hint of snow in the Sierra but on evenings like this I'm left wondering why anyone would ever want to leave San Francisco in the first place.  With the view over Pacific Heights, a cup of tea and some reminiscing - I'm reminded of two of my favorite Herb Caen quotes:

"I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there."

 
"Cockroaches and socialites are the only things that can stay up all night and eat anything."

BB

The Steve Jobs Effect - An Argument Against Trusts?

It's pretty common to find situations where the death of a family mogul in a privately-held corporation creates havoc amongst the company, instability for other investors as well as uncertainty in the disposition of the estate.  But what about this effect on a publicly-held company?  In standard corporate America, intricately-crafted succession plans help guard against the loss of a key figure possibly resulting in loss of significant financial resources.  It takes a very rare case, and rare individual, to bring this business-as-normal scenario into potential question.  But it can happen, through what I've before called the Steve Jobs effect: when an individual is so completely tied into the success of a corporation or brand that their personal agency - not the legacy of their work - is what stands foremost in customers' and investors' minds, that the potential for such a ripple effect through the public holding is a possibility.  The question is, can the individual's estate planing affect that course of events?

Now we come to find the example I've picked - Steve Jobs - is actually a counter-example.  This is not for lack of the effect being real - it's because Mr. Jobs got solid estate planning advice (No, he was not my client, but I would have advised in like manner).  As reported in the Chronicle yesterday and Forbes earlier this month, his irrevocable trusts secured nearly $3 billion in otherwise potentially-taxable assets for his family. The details of this trust relationship are private to the family, and therefore in a public company become opaque to shareholders.

So how did Apple fare upon learning of his death?  There was a significant drop, but at 5% it was only a temporary blip, due to equally impeccable transition planning on the part of Jobs.  Certainly, questions about succession at Apple are alive and well, but the bottom line is strong and anyone can see that the ship will continue on course for at least the while.

But in other situations a "Jobs effect" could be more significant.  The heretical question might arise, where the potential that a mogul's passing could seriously endanger a company's value: could the benefit of direct, open transfer of company assets to clearly involved successors - as opposed to cloaked in a trust arrangement - provide transparency and security enough to offset the tax hits that would follow?  The answer would clearly depend on the individuals, and would probably be an extraordinary case, but it's interesting to ponder nonetheless.

BB

Bighorn Buttons?

Another for the "intriguing mystery" category: we were recently doing a walk through of a client's home prior to an estate sale, discussing characteristics that might make for a better auction. We had decided to leave the place staged largely with his own furniture, including a large frame desk in the main study.

While listening through some drone or other, I was casually tugging at the drawers of this desk, and looking down ran across a yellowed envelope bulging slightly at its center.  Taking it out and opening it, we were surprised to find a small button, with a small slip of paper saying:

"Custer's Button.  Gift of P. Small 1953"

 

I've had confirmation that it is indeed a U.S. Army Cavalry button, of some vintage, but other than that its provenance is a mystery.  Some research has revealed that P. Small could refer to Pauline Small, a prominent Crow tribal leader whose grandfather was known to be a scout for Custer at Little Bighorn.  How could the connection have been made? Unclear, though as a law student at Ann Arbor in the 50's my client had done legal outreach work with tribes in Montana.  Again, we'll never know for sure...

BB

Trotting around Turkey

One of the trips Maria and I have always wanted to take is the coastal route of Turkey, followed by hopping south to Petra, Jordan.  This April we finally made it happen, flying into Istanbul on a long night flight from Brussels.  We saddled up on an old BMW with sidecar and, well, a month later and too much fun to relate here...

Istanbul

Our Rig

Soke - Temple of Apollo

Antalya

Maria floats the Dead Sea

Petra

Passing Thoughts, II

A few more: 

Our life dreams the Utopia. Our death achieves the Ideal. - Victor Hugo 

With death comes honesty. - Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses  

How surely are the dead beyond death. Death is what the living carry with them. A state of dread, like some uncanny foretaste of a bitter memory. But the dead do not remember and nothingness is not a curse.- Cormac McCarthy, Suttree

The great thing about the dead, they make space. - John Updike, Rabbit is Rich

To those who view the voyage of life from the port of departure the bark that has accomplished any considerable distance appears already in close approach to the farther shore. - Ambrose Bierce, "The Death of Halpin Frayser"

Here lies one whose name was writ in water. - John Keats, epitaph for himself

BB

Obama Estate Tax - Bad for Me?

Today Congressional Republicans announced what they most wanted out of first-term Obama - an extension of the Bush tax cuts.  But should it all be viewed as bad from Obama's perspective? Well, he gets essentially what he's been looking for too - finally some traction in Congress, and he gets a time limit on the wealth benefit (yes I'm willing to call it that, and not a death tax).

Wait, don’t I oppose a higher tax rate on the richest?  Shouldn’t I, as one of the lucky few to have something scrapped together here on planet earth, want to keep my own hard earned riches, and my clients to keep theirs? The thing is, when planted most finally in the ground, I’m not really going to care.  Yes, perhaps it’s easy to say this not having children – but my experience shows that, by and large, the spoils of the most fortunate often do not spread to the benefit of future generations in the way many on the right imagine.

And are the dollars best spent in private or public hands?  That’s the essential question.  There is plenty of waste in government these days, always has been.  But I’d have to say, with the devoted descendential hording I observe among the select set I encounter, there is not a strong argument for a better economic stimulus either way.  My guess is it just depends on whom you prefer to see doing the hording.

Yes true, it’s my job to keep things from getting into public coffers as best I can.  People pay me - well I might add - specifically to do this. Yet to a certain extent, the higher the marginal rate, the greater the incentive on my clients to hire me to work some magic.  So I have a vested interest, you could say, in either outcome.

But you could also say, akin to the ancient greek anchisteia- the extended family who inherited the estate of a man who failed to have or adopt a son – I feel a certain kinship with the greater public, both a right and a privilege in passing along what should be passed on, to whom it should. So says a man who cannot pass on to the few - here here to the many.