28. October 2009 by Dan Walkow, CFA, CMT.

Abuse of wealthy elderly parents by their greedy adult children and other relatives is as common as sin — so common that legal eagles have coined a name for it: elder abuse. More than 500,000 reports of such abuse against elderly Americans are sent to legal authorities every year, and millions more cases are thought to go unreported. Indeed, U.S. Senate sources estimate that only 16% of all elder abuse cases are reported.

A comprehensive survey by the MetLife Mature Market Institute concludes that — Read more

Posted in Readings | No Comments »

28. October 2009 by Dan Walkow, CFA, CMT.

A wealthy accountant who provided extensive help in the tax evasion probe of Swiss bank UBS AG was sentenced to a year of house arrest Wednesday after admitting he concealed about $6-million (U.S.) in assets from the IRS.Steven Michael Rubinstein, 55, was the first U.S. citizen charged in the probe. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said his prosecution sent a message around the globe about the risks of hiding assets in offshore accounts — and that he deserved credit for helping U.S. investigators find more tax cheats and crooked bankers within UBS and other institutions in Switzerland and elsewhere. Read more here.

Posted in Taxation | No Comments »