As I write this, just days before production ends on another issue of Private Wealth magazine, the nation is reacting to the news this morning that the U.S. Supreme Court, for the second time, has upheld President Obama’s health-care reform act.
The decision, of course, unleashed the usual drama and divisiveness that seem to be part of any national “discussion” about Obamacare. Democrats declared victory, Republicans reaffirmed their commitment to the act’s repeal, while state governors of both parties probably breathed a collective sigh of relief about not having to deal with the broken insurance exchanges they would have been left with if the court had ruled against the administration.
Yet if the court ruling does further cement Obamacare as the nexus of the nation’s health-care infrastructure, it hasn’t put a lid on the rhetoric surrounding the law. As we move closer to the presidential election season, we can only expect the debate to grow louder and more intense on this and many other issues.
This issue of Private Wealth, in fact, touches on some areas that figure to be affected by keynote campaign issues over the next year and which are of prime concern to advisors to the wealthy. In our cover story, for example, Russ Alan Prince interviews Edward Renn, a private-client attorney who specializes in tax-planning strategies. Renn stresses that client strategies need to be on the right side of the law. But with the continued debate over the U.S. wealth gap and federal spending, one wonders to what extent the legal lines will be redrawn as a result of the election. Tax policy is, of course, an issue that touches everyone, including institutions such as the Knight Foundation, which, as Thomas Kostigen writes, is embarking on an ambitious plan to expand its community giving programs. The ultimate shape of tax policy will have a major impact on the amount of donations Knight and other nonprofits receive to carry out their missions.
What is certain is that you won’t have to be a political junkie to be absorbed by the 2016 presidential campaign. There are a lot of issues to be debated along the way—by a lot of contenders. At last count, Republicans were fielding 13 presidential candidates, with two or three others waiting in the wings. The Democrats have “just” four candidates, but the shadow of Bill Clinton is creating enough news buzz to count for nine more.
So even if the U.S. Supreme Court turns out to have made the last judicial ruling on Obamacare, it almost certainly wasn’t the last word on the matter.
