Asset Protection

In Revenue Ruling 2010-18, the IRS published the applicable federal interest rates for July, 2010. These are some of the lowest rates in the past thirty years, and as far as I can see,some of the lowest rates in modern history. For example, you can sell assets in July in exchange for a promissory note with athree year termand an interest rate of 0.61%. Or, you can sell assets in July in exchange for a promissory note with a nine year term and an interest rate of 2.33%. Or, if you have previously sold assets to a trust for estate planning purposes, you could re-finance the note at these historically low interest rates. These low rates allow more of your assets to grow outside of your estate and pass to thenext generation free of estate taxes.

Two summers ago, we spent a week on a beautiful lake called Sand Hollow. This lake has huge sandy beaches, crystal clear water, warm temperatures, and stunning views. I was really excited to do alot of water skiing, but I knew that windy weather could play havoc with my plans. In order to hedge our bets, I brought along a catamaran sailboat. Sailing is great fun, but if the wind won't blow, sitting on a sailboat is beyond boredom. Having both the skiboat and the sailboat turned out to be the perfect combination; because when the weather was calm, we ski'd the glass, and when the weather was windy, we had a blast with the sailboat.

Last Saturday I went snowcat skiing with my dad and my brother. We had a marvelous time. But the most impressive part of the day was watching the guides who led us to the steepest and deepest powder runs while avoiding the dangers all around us. The guides have years of experience on the same mountains and they know exactly where the best powder is found and how to avoid the avalanches and other dangers which were apparent all around us. All day the snowcat climbed up ridges no wider than the snowcat itself with thousand foot drops on both sides. We ski’d along narrow ridges where the guides insisted that we stay directly on their tracks to avoid collapsing the rims on either side. In one large bowl thousands of yards across, the guides showed us how there was avalanche danger on the right, icy crusty snow on the left, and one perfect powder run down the middle. They had us ski between the tracks of one guide on the right and the tracks of another on the left so we could take advantage of the lightest and deepest powder the mountain had to offer.