Insider Finance - Business - Insider Today: Boomers are MIA

December 3, 2023 • 4 min read

with Matt Turner

Welcome back to our Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories. It’s great to be back with you after a couple of weeks of PTO — big thanks to Cadie Thompson and Nicholas Carlson for taking the reins while I was out.

On the agenda today:

But first: The trick rich parents are using to save on taxes while keeping some control of their wealth. 

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Claudette Barius/HBO

Dispatch

Superrich <3 SLATs

Picture the scene: You’re a retired entrepreneur millionaire keen to take advantage of Trump-era tax cuts but not quite ready to turn over your wealth to the kids. 

Enter the spousal lifetime-access trust, an increasingly popular tactic with the wealthy that offers the best of both worlds.

The trust, known as a SLAT, allows married taxpayers to put some of their money in trusts that then pay out to their spouses, with the trust passing to new beneficiaries, typically the kids, only after the spouse dies. It’s a way to maintain some control over one’s wealth, book a tax benefit, and pass on one’s wealth to the offspring in the future.

Under the law, rich parents can put almost $13 million into a SLAT without incurring the federal estate tax. That number will drop to $5 million, adjusted for inflation from 2018, when the Trump-era tax cuts expire.

The SLAT tactic is one of the many ways rich people are saving big on taxes, from putting mansions in trusts to guaranteeing inheritance for future generations.

Chelsea Jia Feng/Insider

This week's top reads

Millennials feel abandoned

While other generations are struggling to get by, boomers are seemingly living better than ever. According to the Federal Reserve, baby boomers own more than $78 trillion in assets, and data shows they’re outspending other generations on travel and dining out. 

Meanwhile, many of their millennial children feel left behind. Some who have gone on to have their own children feel their parents have become “too busy” to help raise their growing families.

More on the new generational dynamic.

Also read:

• Millennial and Gen Z parents are struggling

• Why millennials say they need more than double the salary of other generations to be happy

Kiersten Essenpreis for Business Insider

Hidden household expense

When it comes to household costs, insurance is often one of the lesser-noticed line items.

Insuring your property is often mandatory, making the payments feel more like a force of nature than an active spending decision. But with the rising cost of repairs and frequency of damaging weather events, insurance companies are jacking up premiums on people from coast-to-coast.

As a result, Americans are projected to spend $74 billion more on insurance next year. Budgets will crack — and the US economy will pay the price.

We break it down here.

Getty/Kevin Dietsch

Altman's shopping spree

Years before the drama at OpenAI turned Sam Altman into a household name, he went on an extraordinary 18-month, $85 million real-estate shopping spree, according to records reviewed by Business Insider.

These purchases included multimillion-dollar properties in Hawaii, San Francisco, and Napa, California — and they were all managed by his discreet family office.

How Altman spent his money.

Also read:

• We now have more details on what the heck happened at OpenAI

Glassdoor

Amex under scrutiny

American Express has the attention of authorities.

Federal prosecutors have been interviewing former Amex employees over a product marketed to small-business owners as a way to avoid taxes, sources told Business Insider. Premium Wire allowed small-business owners to use business income to pay employee expenses in return for personal credit-card rewards points.

Taking a lead in the criminal investigation for Brooklyn prosecutors are two veterans of the office's criminal division. Meanwhile, Amex's results-driven culture has taken a hit, current and former sales employees told BI, because compliance staff have gotten more involved in the sales process.

Inside the criminal investigation involving American Express.

Read more:

• American Express is being investigated over sales practices. Salespeople say they have been made scapegoats.

This week's quote

"Go fuck yourself."

— Elon Musk’s message to advertisers fleeing X while speaking at the DealBook Summit on Wednesday. Musk’s bizarre, long-winded interview touched on just about everything but Tesla’s Cybertruck launch.

More of this week's top reads:

The Insider Today Sunday team

Matt Turner, editor in chief of business, in New York City. Dan DeFrancesco, senior editor, in New York City. Diamond Naga Siu, senior reporter, in San Diego. Grace Lett, associate editor, in Chicago. Hallam Bullock, editor, in London. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York City.

Get in touch

insidertoday@insider.com

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