Preserving Ranch Land of the American West

With growth and development exploding across the American West, a movement is flourishing to protect the landscapes that we all hold so dear. Local and national land trusts are at the forefront of this effort, and the conservation easement is the legal tool most often used to accomplish the preservation.

Mirr Ranch Group: Unparalleled Conservation Easement Expertise

Mirr Ranch Group can provide you with experienced and qualified consultation on conservation easements. Ken Mirr is the President of the Board for the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, is a former public lands attorney, and has years of experience brokering deals where conservation easements are involved. This makes Mirr Ranch Group's conservation orientation and credibility undisputed in the ranch brokerage industry.

Conservation Buyer Program

Sometimes land trusts, national conservation groups, or landowners would like to protect a critical piece of land, but they do not possess the resources to do so. Because of the background and conservation expertise of our staff, Mirr Ranch Group has been able to develop a list of possible buyers who wish to acquire and ultimately protect land parcels with an easement. Mirr Ranch Group actively partners with national and local conservation groups to market their surplus holdings to qualified buyers and to find buyers for particular environmentally significant parcels in need of protection. Click here to view our current list of conservation properties for sale.

Special Needs Planning - Harrisburg PA

Special Planning LLC has successfully helped families of individuals with special needs find financial and legal guidance for many years.  My wife, Deborah, and I have 6 children, 3 of whom have special needs.  It was through the experiences we encountered meeting our own family’s challenges that kindled my desire to create Special Planning LLC in order to help lead other families through this maze.  As Founder and Chief Executive Officer, I hope to provide families with disabled loved ones the guidance they need to navigate the financial and legal waters of planning for the future.  From such planning comes the security and peace of mind of knowing that your estate and financial planning needs have been met in a clear and honest fashion.

William J. Parker, CEO and founder of Special Planning LLC

Elizabeth Silbaugh Johnides, Partner of Special Planning LLC

A Great Looking Site!

Take a look at the website for Engaged Legacies --- it practically reeks of stratospheric levels of wealth.

Here's one of their cool graphics:

Here's a key question on their Contact Us page:

Do you have at least three (3) clients with assets over $5,000,000 or at least one (1) client with assets over $10,000,000? *

Free Calculators for Estate Planning Professionals

An article in the January 8, 2008 issue of Trusts and Estate magazine provides a good survey of some of the free resources available on the internet. 


Of particular note:

PhilantroCalc for the Web is free via Ashland University as well as other charitable organizations' websites. It includes calculators for charitable gift annuities, CLTs, CRATs and CRUTs.

72t on the Net offers a life expectancy calculator for all commonly used mortality tables, an elaborate compound interest calculator and calculators for both Roth eligibility and Roth conversion.

Assetstream provides an advanced calculator that computes the tax advantages of donating appreciated stock to charity, taking into account both federal and state income tax rates.

Am I crazy, or does this product sound like a clone of American General's Elite Global Index UL?

NG Indexed Universal Life - Global (ING IUL-Global) is an individual indexed universal life insurance product offering valuable death benefit protection and the opportunity for cash value accumulation through index crediting potential based, in part, on a portion of the performance of two out of three stock market indexes.

This powerful combination of features may help your clients: With valuable death benefit protection Finance their life insurance premium Retain and reward key executives in their business Supplement retirement income From the Agent-Only training guide:

• Upside potential with unique “hindsight” interest crediting strategy based upon a formula that uses a portion of the better-performing two out of three indexes
• 5-year look-back period to reduce volatility associated with year to year index changes
• 1% guaranteed minimum interest rate for Indexed Strategy

• 60% Participation rate (current as of 11/23/2009)
  • For each Block, the Participation Rate and Index Cap will be set on the Block Start Date and will not change during that Block.
  • Will never be less than the Guaranteed Minimum Participation Rate of 15%
• No Index Cap (current as of 11/23/2009)
  • Will never be less than the Guaranteed Minimum Index Cap of 100%

Industry players cooperating to hedge (or profit from?) longevity risks.

Founded by AXA, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Legal & General (Banner & Wm Penn), Pension Corporation, Prudential, RBS and Swiss Re.,  the Life & Longevity Markets Association claims:

For certain institutional investors, longevity represents a potentially attractive investment opportunity primarily because it is not correlated to non-life, credit and market risks.

The LLMA seeks to break down the barriers to market growth by supporting the development of consistent standards, methodologies and benchmarks, By helping to build a liquid trading market, the LLMA will aid the expansion of capacity to meet demand, ultimately bringing added security to the benefits of pension fund members.