Monthly Tips
March 2025
TIP 1 Warren Buffett Business Succession Plan
Whether you are a shareholder or not, you may have fun reading the annual letter from Warren Buffett regarding Berkshire Hathaway, posted on the company’s website.
Mr. Buffet has mentioned previously that he loves what he does and plans to work as long as he lives, but in the most recent letter he also says “At 94, it won’t be long before Greg Abel replaces me as CEO and will be writing the annual letters.”
What a good example, to find work you would want to do even at 94 years of age. But an even better lesson might be to have a succession plan in place, regardless of how long you plan on continuing to work. Warren Buffett has been training his successor for years and years, so that there will be as little disruption as possible when he passes the reins. Just like estate planning, it’s best not to wait until the last minute to plan for retirement because some strategies take years to implement. If you are interested in learning more about estate and retirement planning, please ask Garden State Trust Company for more information.
https://gstrustco.com/about-us/meet-our-team/
TIP 2 St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is technically celebrated on Monday, March 17th in 2025, but celebrations and parades for Irish heritage are happening throughout the month in New Jersey. A list of some of the larger celebrations is here on visitnj.org.
Are you looking for a little Irish luck and wondering how difficult it is to find a four-leaf clover? This video from the Scientific American explains that the odds of finding a clover with four leaflets is reported to be about 1 in 10,000. That may seem like an impossible number of clovers to look through, but they also let us know that clovers can grow densely enough that scanning about 1.2 square meters (about the size of an office desk) would cover that many clovers. Of course, with averages there are no guarantees that one would appear in every area of clover growth.
Whether you need to be lucky to find a four-leaf clover, or finding one will give you luck, we hope you have a great St. Patrick’s Day celebration this year.
https://gstrustco.com/resources/learning/
TIP 3 The Traditions of Handling Human Remains
Most estate planning discussions are about the transfer of wealth to create a lasting legacy. Although this might be the most important thing to consider for those that remain, a question that doesn’t get quite as much attention may be a bit more personal and even harder to think about – What will happen to your body?
Find out a bit more about the traditional and emerging options in “Choices About What Will Happen to Your Body When You Die”.
https://gstrustco.com/trusts-estates/executor-services/
TIP 4 IRS Tax Scams
The IRS may have made some historic gains in combating criminals and financial scam artists last year, according to their report for 2024 on their website here, even leading a task force to combat fentanyl trafficking. However, there are still many criminals and scam artists out there, and we need to remain as vigilant as ever.
As the tax filing deadline approaches, the likelihood of receiving calls from scammers pretending to be IRS agents telling people there is an issue with their tax return, or that they can help them with back taxes, or that their refund is on hold until they receive a minor processing fee goes up.
When it comes to your taxes, always remember that the IRS will not call and demand immediate payment or request payment via a credit, debit, or gift card, or threaten to bring in police or other agencies to arrest you for not paying.
