A perspective based in trust, not transactions

Thought Leadership from our Financial Experts

Truxton Trust offers sound financial advice and perspectives to help you navigate through your greater financial world, from experienced people you can trust. Explore our insights to see how we think.

The Check Is In the Mail, Maybe!

William H. "Hank" Stuart

“The check is in the mail.” In my 42+ years as a banker, no telling how many times I have had that said to me. And for the overwhelming majority of those years, I could count on that check being delivered by the postal service within 2 days to my bank address. Well, like Andy and Barney sitting on the front porch after church on Sundays in Mayberry, those days are gone.

Will the Frugal Fund the Fix?

What if we could fix the Social Security deficit right now with no legislation and no new taxes? What if we could accomplish that with no benefit cuts that would push any senior into poverty? Turns out we can and perhaps we will. But there is no “free lunch.” The fix requires benefits to be capped at $2,050 per month, meaning a cut of almost 50% for high income seniors, the people who have paid the most into the program and who already, through current program structure, significantly subsidize lower income participants.

Corporate Transparency Act Presents Unique Opportunity for Trust Planning

C. Brandt Warner, JD, CFP®

When many people think of money laundering, their first thought probably is not a Tennessee business organization. Due to some bad actors though, business organizations registered in Tennessee and all other states now face increased scrutiny from the federal government. The greatest impact of this additional oversight may be the loss of privacy for some business owners. From the end of 2022 until March 2024, the number of business entities registered in Tennessee declined from 486,000 to below 410,000. Per the most recent Tennessee Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators Report for the first quarter of 2024, new filings for all business entities fell by eight percent. The data suggests that fewer businesses are registering and remaining registered in Tennessee. This news is troubling, especially on the heels of impressive growth in business formations coming out of the pandemic. Further, it raises the question of why. One possible explanation is the enactment of the Corporate Transparency Act.

Attention Business Owners: The Supreme Court Has Spoken!

Peter E. Deming, CPA

Throughout the lifecycle of a closely held business, owners should contemplate succession planning for a variety of reasons, including the loss of key employees, retirement of principals and owners, and of course, death. A common planning technique, to ensure continuity of business operations and control of the company following the death of a co-owner is the use of agreements between the owners to purchase stock from the estate of the deceased. Or in the alternative, shareholders may have agreements with their company to redeem shares following death. Often life insurance policies are owned by the business to create the liquidity needed to fulfill these agreements.

Social Security for the Rich

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." ― F. Scott Fitzgerald Fitzgerald was correct, when it comes to Social Security and Medicare; high income and high net worth Americans should think about them differently. Almost all Americans are eligible to receive Medicare and Social Security benefits beginning in their 60’s. Social Security is the biggest source of income for most older folks but often not for people with high net worth and income. Still, maximizing benefits and minimizing taxes is worthwhile.

Miles T. Kirkland, CFA

The Federal Reserve began hiking rates in March 2022 to address inflation sparked by the fiscal and monetary stimulus previously provided to limit Covid’s impact on the US economy. The Fed increased the Fed Funds rate 11 times in increments ranging from .25% to .75% over 16 months and then paused after the last hike in July 2023, at which time the overnight lending rate stood at 5.25% to 5.5%. We have been paused ever since. Meanwhile, the economy has been resilient. As the Consumer Price Index has dropped (in fits and starts), the belief that the Fed could engineer a “soft landing” had become the norm. What does that mean? The Fed has a dual-mandate to promote stable prices and full-employment. The two tend to argue with one another. When employment is very strong, higher wages tend to drive higher inflation. When rates rise to tame inflation, employment tends to suffer. A “soft landing” means that the expected adverse outcome from economic models didn’t happen. In other words, inflation comes down without significant damage to employment.

The Situs of Your Trust: It Just Means More

C. Brandt Warner, JD, CFP®

Does your trust pay state income taxes on undistributed trust income? Can you amend your trust document without a court order? Can you even modify your irrevocable trust? Does your trust protect your family from capital gains taxes at your death? How about at your spouse’s death? If you have a trust, you could have the power to determine some of its provisions. Depending on the situs of your trust, however, some of these features and benefits may not be available. In the spirit of the upcoming college football season, we prepared a power ranking of the SEC states with respect to trust situs features, showcasing what makes the Volunteer State special. Find out what makes Tennessee a fan favorite trust situs.

Certitude & Complacency

J. Overton Colton

It’s my world view. Certitude annoys me. With certitude comes over-confidence followed by hubris then by ruin and devastation. Such is the storyline of much of the world’s mythologies and a countless number of biographies ending in tragedy. Interestingly, complacency is the other side of the same coin. A trait much less obnoxious and boorish than certitude, complacency still makes casual, laissez-faire assumptions about the future that can also lead to disaster. It’s just a different kind of certainty.

Truxton at 20 Years: A Big Deal or Not?

Derrick A. Jones

I’ve been trying to decide whether 20 years is significant or not. There are reasons for wanting the answer to be yes or no. When we opened the doors for business on August 30, 2004, I was 34 years old. Nick Saban hadn’t yet arrived at the University of Alabama where he’d later become the most tenured coach in the SEC and has since retired. The iPhone hadn’t been invented and no one had ever heard of an Ice Bucket Challenge. There were no public companies with a market value of $1 Trillion, now there are six. There have been about 500 bank failures, the disastrous BP oil spill, and of course, COVID-19. Yet now we don’t have to memorize anyone’s phone number or go to Blockbuster.

Parallels Between Personal Security and Financial Security

Charles Vance II, JD

Security lies at the epicenter of my profession. Practicing family law and advising clients on financial matters, in addition to thirty years of law enforcement, has given me perspective on what it takes to achieve safety and peace-of-mind. In my unique position at Truxton, serving as both a Wealth Advisor and Director of Security, I often draw upon my past experiences which include numerous similarities between personal and financial security. As I advise clients and colleagues alike, taking a comprehensive approach to personal and financial security leads to a more secure and prosperous life. Let’s take a look at some of the strategies that are essential for protecting both your physical and fiscal health:

Proud of the Business We’ve Built

Thomas S. Stumb

In what seems like the blink of an eye, Truxton is now twenty years old. In 2004, our twenty organizers raised $20 million of start up capital and we opened for business on August 30, 2004. We had just twelve people on our payroll that day. Today, we have seventy colleagues working fulltime at Truxton.

Social Security Primer

Thinking about retirement, for almost all Americans, means thinking about Social Security. Even for relatively wealthy people, social security will be a large portion of retirement income. Yet, most people I speak to have almost no insight into the amount and structure of their future benefits.

Graduation, Knowledge, and Leadership

Derrick A. Jones

Thirty-seven years ago, about this time, I graduated from high school. There is nothing particularly extraordinary about this broadly expected milestone except that in my family I was the first to experience it. While there wasn’t a corresponding celebration, one could tell there was an elevated sense of pride among our family. Being a pretty good student, I think there were some decent options for continuing my education, but I really didn’t understand how it all worked or could work for me. College seemed a foreign world.

On Private Credit

Philip L. Skipp

The hot new shiny object in finance is Private Credit. But, this new asset class, in its “golden age”, is not all that new. According to Bloomberg News, “private credit can be traced back to the 1980s, when insurance companies began lending directly to companies with strong borrowing records. Today, private credit funds deploy billions of dollars in a variety of investing strategies: direct lending, distressed lending, venture debt, mezzanine finance, and special situations.” These five lending strategies have gone from $500 billion in AUM in 2015 to an estimated $1.7 trillion in 2023 and are forecasted to hit $3.5 trillion by 2028. There are many different players employing myriad strategies ranging in size, industry, geography, etc. For this article, we focus on the Lower Middle Market (LMM), which is broadly defined as borrowers that are doing $3mm-$15mm in EBITDA.

The Buttonwood Blues

Mitch Van Zelfden, CFA

The headline of the Wall Street Journal article framed on my wall reads: “Stocks Plunge 508.32 Amid Panicky Selling.” It is dated October 20, 1987 and, as many of you might have guessed, describes the events of and investor reaction to Black Monday, which saw the largest single-day percent price decline in U.S. market history. Nearly 40 years old, the newspaper appears stressed, worn and jaded – probably emblematic of investors’ faces and attitudes on that infamous day. But, it is an eternal reminder that stock price drawdowns—however large in scale and scope and regardless of rationale—are inevitable during all investors’ timelines.

Tax Law Provisions (Part II): Don’t Let the Sun Go Down

Buck Patton, CFP®, CPWA®

A recent piece by my colleague Peter Deming presented the changes coming after December 31, 2025, when the Tax Cuts and Job Act (TCJA) “sunsets.” In this Part Two, I detail several strategies clients should consider for taking advantage of the higher estate and gift tax (aka transfer tax) exemptions before they are halved at the end of 2025.

Tax Law Provisions: Riding Off into the Sunset?

Peter E. Deming, CPA

In less than two years, a host of taxpayer friendly provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are to expire or “sunset”, leaving many high-net-worth and/or high-income earning individuals and families potentially surprised by larger income tax and estate tax liabilities. Congress could act to extend or make permanent many of these provisions, but as the political landscape seemingly continues along a path of divisiveness and laws are passed closer and closer to deadlines, you should not wait to start planning.