Evertern Wealth

10/05/2026

Selling a business can create life-changing wealth. But without the right planning, the transaction itself is often the easiest part of the transition.

Our Founder and Managing Director, "Mic" Michael Lundon, CEPA®, J.D., joined host Seth Greene on the Registered Investment Advisor Podcast for Episode 267: The Exit Planning Mistakes Owners Make Too Late.

In the conversation, Mic covers:

• Why exit planning should begin years before a sale, not once a deal is already in motion

• How to coordinate financial, tax, estate, and succession planning so major decisions aren't made under time pressure

• Reducing a company's dependence on its founder through strong management, documented processes, and shared responsibility

• Why the highest offer doesn't necessarily make for a successful exit

• How to tell whether a sale will actually support the life you want afterward

• Managing concentrated wealth after a liquidity event, and building the right advisory team around it

• Preparing for the emotional transition out of a business you built, and planning for future generations

Listen here:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4j5bYaU
Spotify: https://bit.ly/3TJ3OdP
YouTube: https://bit.ly/4hCJBOU
Amazon Podcasts: https://amzn.to/4ywFBqf

This post is for informational purposes only and is not investment, tax, or legal advice. Policy guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurer. Consult your tax and legal advisors before implementing any strategy.

09/25/2026

Our Founder and Managing Partner, Jason Stephens. believes the bond market may be the “most important market to watch right now.”

He shared with CNBC that "the economy continues to show remarkable resilience, but that strength is keeping inflation concerns alive and pushing interest rates higher.”

Be sure to check out Jason’s insights.

He says the real question isn't whether the Fed hikes again in October, but how long rates stay elevated, and what a 10-year Treasury above 5% eventually does to housing, corporate borrowing, private markets, and equity valuations.

Read the full interview at the link in the comments.

09/22/2026

DAF vs. Private Foundation: Key Differences to Help You Decide Your Giving & Tax Strategies

A donor-advised fund: Can be opened today with no legal fees and no annual filings. You recommend the grants and the sponsoring charity signs off. You can give anonymously, and nothing forces money out in a given year. Cash can be deducted up to 60% of adjusted gross income and appreciated stock up to 30%.

A private foundation: It can take weeks to launch and comes with real legal and accounting costs. Form 990-PF is public knowledge and includes compensation numbers. Roughly 5% of assets must go out annually. Cash deducts up to 30% of adjusted gross income and appreciated stock up to 20%.

So why does anyone build a private foundation?

A foundation does things donor-advised funds can't. You can hire your children at reasonable compensation. You can run your own programs instead of funding someone else's. You are able to fund individuals and scholarships, as well as set a governance structure that outlives you.

One buys simplicity. The other buys control, and charges you in transparency and overhead.

Ideally, under roughly $2M, the overhead usually wins. Above it, the question stops being cost and starts being intent. Do you want to only write checks? Or do you want to build an institution?

Lastly, it doesn’t have to be either/or. Plenty of foundations grant to a DAF when they want to give quietly.

How do you want to make an impact leveraging your wealth? We can help provide you with strategic stewardship to decide.



Disclaimer:

Evertern Wealth and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

This Presentation is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase any security or investment product or services. The content of this Presentation is provided solely for your personal use and shall not be deemed to provide access to any particular transaction or investment opportunity. Evertern Wealth does not intend the information in this Presentation to be investment advice, and the information presented in this Presentation should not be relied upon to make an investment decision. Any third-party information contained herein was prepared by sources deemed to be reliable but is not guaranteed.

09/11/2026

A moment of slience for a generation of rememberance.

09/07/2026

Labor Day is often described as a day of rest. For the families and founders we work with, it is better understood as a day of recognition. We think of the enterprises built, the people who built them, and the responsibility that comes with both.

Capital is the visible outcome. The work behind it is the part that endures. It belongs to the operators, the teams, and the decades of decisions made carefully and quietly. Stewardship of one requires respect for the other.

Our offices are closed Monday. We are grateful, as always, for the trust of those we serve, and for the people whose work makes that trust worth keeping.

09/04/2026

Private placement life insurance (PPLI) has been described more than once as "a Roth IRA on steroids." That framing is dramatic and oversimplified, but it points to why the structure attracts attention from those with significant wealth.

So what is it? PPLI is a variable universal life policy offered to accredited investors. When properly structured, growth inside the policy is generally tax-deferred, and the death benefit generally passes to beneficiaries free of income tax. The five largest carriers reportedly held $44B+ in PPLI assets at the end of 2025.

Why now: ultra-high-net-worth portfolios are heavy in alternatives, and alternatives are tax-inefficient. Inside a properly structured wrapper, that annual tax drag may be deferred or reduced.

The catch: IRS investor control rules mean you pick a manager and strategy up front — then stop. No swapping positions. Entry typically runs $1M–$5M, costs are real, and the Senate Finance Committee is already paying attention.

PPLI is complex and not suitable for most investors. The potential benefits and risks are in the details.

Read more on how PPLI actually works, what it costs, who it may fit, and where the risk sits. https://bit.ly/4cphwsK



This post is for informational purposes only and is not investment, tax, or legal advice. Policy guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurer. Consult your tax and legal advisors before implementing any strategy.

08/20/2026

Jason Stephens was featured in CNBC's market coverage this week, weighing in on oil, Iran tensions, and what both mean for portfolios.

As crude moved markets and the Dow gave back more than 270 points, Jason's read was that the risk in oil skews to the downside rather than the upside, as negotiations are back and forth in real time. "There's a lot of pressure on the administration right now" heading into the midterms.

It's a reminder of how we approach moments like this with clients: headlines move prices, but disciplined portfolio design is built on valuation and long-term positioning, not the day's tape.

Read the full CNBC piece at the link in the comments:



*Disclaimer:
This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security.

The Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list, developed by SHOOK Research, covers the period from January 1 to December 31 of each year, and was released the following year. Neither Evertern Wealth nor any of its advisors pay a fee in exchange for this recognition. Jason was on this list from 2023 – 2026. For more information regarding the methodology of these rankings, please visit: https://bit.ly/3RObtTj

2026 Forbes Top 250 Wealth Advisors, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on time period from January 1 to December 31 and was released the following year. Neither Evertern Wealth nor any of its advisors pay a fee in exchange for this award. Please see https://bit.ly/3VJcsI7 for more information.

08/18/2026

Building wealth and preserving wealth are two entirely different professions.

Most families spend a lifetime mastering the first — and never prepare for the second.

In a new piece for Rethinking65, our CEO Jason Stephens writes about a family that spent two generations turning a regional business into a nationally recognized company, then sold to a publicly traded corporation.

For decades, their question had been: how do we grow this?

After the sale, it became: how do we make sure we never lose it?

That's not a small pivot. Their wealth used to sit in a business they owned and controlled. Now it sat in someone else's stock — priced by forces they couldn't influence.

The industry tends to treat this moment as a technical exercise. Diversify the concentrated position. Reduce the taxes. Revise the estate plan.

All of it matters. None of it is the first decision.

Before deciding how to preserve wealth, a family has to decide what it's preserving, for whom, and to what end.

Jason outlines the four realizations that families who navigate this well tend to reach early:

1. Concentration built the wealth — and is now the single biggest threat to it. Betting everything on one company is exactly what entrepreneurship demands. It's also the fastest way to lose what was built.

2. The portfolio has become the family's business. It looks like a collection of securities. It's actually the engine driving taxes, estate planning, philanthropy, governance, and every family member's financial future.

3. The family needs a shared understanding of what the wealth is meant to accomplish. Until that's defined, every technical decision rests on an assumption about priorities.

4. The instincts that built the wealth now carry a cost. Decisiveness, urgency, and comfort with risk make an exceptional entrepreneur — and expensive mistakes after a liquidity event. Almost nothing in this phase requires speed, and several decisions can't be undone.

Building wealth is a story about momentum. Preserving it is a story about sequence.

Objective before strategy. Strategy before tactics. Tactics before transactions.

Read the full article at the link in the comments.



*Disclaimer:
This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security.

08/10/2026

Every winter, families spending the season in Florida ask us the same question: should this become permanent?

Our founder, Jason Stephens, spoke with Think Advisor about the tax planning conversation that has played out with clients many times over in his 25 years working with high-net-worth individuals and families looking to leave higher-tax states.

What many people don’t know is there are other vehicles that can generate real savings without a client ever changing an address such as Roth conversion strategies, charitable planning with donor-advised funds and charitable remainder trusts, and coordinated RMD and Social Security timing.

"A well-coordinated multi-family office approach where investment, tax and estate planning are fully integrated can generate annual tax savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, often matching or exceeding the benefit of changing states," Jason shared.

Read more from Jason: https://bit.ly/4q4fsf1

The process — and the real tax differences between states — can be less straightforward than clients expect, advisors say.

08/05/2026

Three siblings inherited a South Florida waterfront home their family had held for 30 years.

One wanted it preserved for future generations. One wanted liquidity. One simply couldn't carry a third of the taxes, insurance, and upkeep.

Every one of those positions was reasonable. None of them fit together.

Our approach? We started with arithmetic rather than emotion because the numbers don't lie. We calculated things like annual carrying costs, capital improvements, and what continued ownership would actually cost each sibling over time.

With all three looking at the same numbers, we worked alongside the family's estate planning attorney to structure an LLC covering ownership percentages, usage, funding obligations, and a clean exit for anyone who wanted one.

The home stayed in the family. So did the relationships.

Evertern Wealth founder and managing partner Jason Stephens spoke with Paula L. Green at Rethinking65 about why conflict over an inherited vacation home is so rarely about the real estate — and why these conversations need to happen while parents are still here to say what they intended.