Joshua Rubenstein Quoted by Citywealth on the Best and Worst Laws in Private Client, Tax and Family

Katten Private Wealth Partner and Global Chair, Joshua S. Rubenstein, shared his views in Citywealth's "The Best and Worst Laws in Private Client, Tax and Family." Joshua described several laws that the trusts and estates field has a "love-hate relationship" with, and he saved his strongest objection for annual wealth taxes. "An annual wealth tax on assets that individuals have managed to accumulate after paying their annual income taxes strikes most of us as unfair. If income taxes have too many loopholes, fix the loopholes."

Joshua also explained how estate and inheritance taxes differ from income taxes, noting that they "are policy based (not revenue based), designed to be avoided by redistributing one's wealth in ways that are tax favored (such as certain gifts) or even tax free (such as transfers to spouses and charity)." He added that "the UK nil band is way too low." On the rule against perpetuities, he warned against "dead hand control," observing that "there is something to be said for having assets come out of trust every couple of generations."

He came down in favor of testamentary freedom over forced heirship "because in practice, wealthy heirs will always find something to fight about." Pointing to "the increase in late-in-life predatory marriages," he said that jurisdictions where marriage revokes an existing will "need to consider whether that produces an equitable result any longer."

Finally, Joshua addressed developments in reproductive science. He said that for surrogacy and the posthumous use of frozen genetic material, "more jurisdictions need to modernize their legislation" to address both whether jurisdictions permit these practices and whether the law recognizes the resulting children for inheritance and succession purposes.

"The Best and Worst Laws in Private Client, Tax and Family." Citywealth, October 14, 2026

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