The estate and succession planning deadline | Ben Esget
Filed on 26. Sep, 2012 in Opinions
By Ben Esget Contributing Writer The end of 2012 marks a serious deadline for high net worth households. For 2011 and 2012, the amount that a person can transfer either during life or at death while avoiding gift and estate taxes has been increased to $5 million. This means that until the end of this year, a [...]
Have you adjusted to Bellingham’s bag ban? | TalkBack
Filed on 20. Sep, 2012 in Polls
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The power of anecdotes | Mike Cook
Filed on 18. Sep, 2012 in Opinions
By Mike Cook Contributing Writer We love numbers, percentages, anything that lets us seemingly quantify features of life, especially in our businesses that make us feel better about ourselves. We survey our employees, seeking information on overall satisfaction and levels of engagement. We survey our customers searching for the same feedback. Who hasn’t been asked for the “A,” or [...]
If the Granary Building is restored, what should it be used for? | TalkBack
Filed on 13. Sep, 2012 in Polls
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The real deal on real estate | Ben Esget
Filed on 12. Sep, 2012 in Opinions
By Ben Esget Contributing Writer For some time I have thought of real estate as having a cult-like following. People talking about real estate seem to share commonalities with those looking for the mothership—reason goes out the window. Lately it seems that everyone sees real estate as the investment of choice, which offers the highest rate of [...]
Mitigating the new Medicare surtax | Kira Bravo
Filed on 11. Sep, 2012 in Opinions
by Kira Bravo Tax Manager, Moss Adams LLP While some elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have already taken effect, many of the biggest changes are still to come, including a 3.8 percent Medicare surtax that will hit certain taxpayers on Jan. 1, 2013. Who is affected? The surtax will apply to individuals and [...]
Have you made energy-efficient retrofits to your home or office? | TalkBack
Filed on 06. Sep, 2012 in Polls
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What is the value of the fearless employee? | Mike Cook
Filed on 04. Sep, 2012 in Opinions
By Mike Cook Contributing Writer Somehow in recent years it seems we’ve made empowerment and engagement into “black box” processes shrouded in mystique and worthy of perpetual research, not to mention the source of income for a large number of consulting groups. What if we simply made both aspects of work far less complex and tried something that [...]
Could Whatcom retail survive without Canadians? | TalkBack
Filed on 30. Aug, 2012 in Polls
The number of overnight travelers from Canada to the U.S. is at the highest level since the early 1970s, according a recent report from Statistics Canada, the nation’s national statistics service. The increase in traffic has been attributed to a strong Canadian dollar and a recent change to the nation’s duty-free rules that has quadrupled the amount [...]
Business-to-business networking with LinkedIn
Filed on 30. Aug, 2012 in Opinions
By Patti Rowlson Contributing Writer So, you already use Facebook and maybe even Twitter, why should you consider jumping on the LinkedIn bandwagon? When used effectively, LinkedIn can offer valuable information that helps professionals stay on top of their game and make new connections—161 million people around the world use the site for business-to-business networking. Those numbers make [...]
