John was the majority owner of a New York-area commercial building cleaning company that he took over from his father. Under John’s leadership, the company grew dramatically into a national market leader with contracts across the county. However, John and the company’s other owners had a problem that is all too common among successful small business owners: too great a portion of their families’ net worth was tied up in illiquid stock of a closely-held corporation. John’s desire for liquidity, continued operational control, and a secure future for the company’s valued employees seemed to present John with an unresolvable paradox. read more

On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission approved a final regulation banning almost all non-compete agreements prospectively, while permitting the grandfathering of preexisting non-compete agreements for senior executives (i.e. employees in a policy-making position and earning at least $151,164 per year). There are certain limited exceptions, including non-compete agreements entered into in connection with the sale of a business. The regulation will become effective on September 4, 2024 and requires employers by that date to have given a notice to employees subject to non-compete agreements that those agreements cannot and will not be enforceable.

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In many areas of the practice of medicine, physicians depend upon having privileges at a hospital in order to take care of their patients and perform procedures that necessitate the resources of a hospital. As a result, maintaining hospital privileges is often a necessity. 

Unfortunately, circumstances may arise where a hospital seeks to limit, temporarily suspend, or even completely revoke, a physician’s privileges. Such a situation can be devastating not just in the short term, but in the long term as well. Adverse actions taken by a hospital with respect to a physician’s privileges is reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank (“NPDB”). A physician who thereafter seeks employment and/or privileges at another institution may have difficulty securing a position since a new employer or hospital will see the adverse NPDB filing. Furthermore, any malpractice insurance application, professional license application or third party payor participating provider application, will seek information about the facts and circumstances of the adverse action taken by a hospital. This can lead to denials of hospital privileges, insurance coverage or third party payor participation. In other words, such a situation can be career ending! read more

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 was a game-changer in many respects for qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Among other things, SECURE 2.0 changed the required minimum distribution (RMD) age from 72 to 73.



If you are approaching RMD age at this time, you will need to navigate a potentially tricky transition period:  read more

The 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is in effect through the end of 2025 and there are annual increases to estate, gift and generation-skipping tax exemptions which are important to note. 

Estate, Gift and Generation-Skipping Tax

• The federal estate tax exemption in 2024 is $13,610,000 per individual. If a client is married, any unused exemption at the first death ports, or passes, to the surviving spouse, so that the exclusion doubles to $27,220,000 without the need for sophisticated estate planning for federal estate tax purposes. The tax rate remains at 40% on the amount exceeding the exemption. read more