A Father’s Life Story

June 17, 2011

A manila folder in my office holds a vinyl case that contains three life insurance policies, carefully stowed away many years ago. I happened upon them this week and read, amid the legalese, the story of a father’s life. My father-in-law met his future wife in the displaced persons’ camps in Germany after World War II. They married in 1946 and soon sailed for Brooklyn. His wife’s sister came with …

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In Memory Of Harold Elkin, 1926-2010

December 16, 2010

Contrary to popular belief, social networking existed long before the Internet gave us applications like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn. Our children are not the first generation to live their lives in full view of relatives, friends and acquaintances. In the tenements of the Lower East Side near the turn of the 20th century, large families crammed themselves into one or two rooms, while sharing a bathroom down the hall with …

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When Mattie Meets Halley

October 21, 2010

Awhile back, Mary Chapin Carpenter wrote a pretty little song about a baby and a comet. In Halley Came To Jackson, a father gazes at his daughter in the glow of Halley’s Comet when it appears in the sky above Mississippi in 1910. “He made a little wish while she slept so sound,” the song goes. “In 1986 that wish came ‘round,” when his daughter saw the comet again from …

The Kids Are Alright; Parents Will Be, Too

September 2, 2010

Across the country, families have been packing their children (and a roomful of their children’s possessions) into trucks and SUVs and heading for college. It’s a big day for parents and students alike. For the colleges, though, it’s just one more start to one more school year. Some of them wish the parents would just go home already. This, at least, is the gist of a recent New York Times …

Bank of Mom and Dad Offers Great Rates

August 16, 2010

Banks are being criticized both for insufficient lending and for making too much profit. While some of these claims are dubious, there is one bank indisputably offering ultra-low rates with potentially high lending capacity: the Bank of Mom and Dad. Loaning money to children, whether adolescents or adults, is a valuable way to increase family wealth, provide opportunity and avoid burdensome gift and estate taxes. With interest rates and asset …

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