By David Jerome, president of Jerome Properties.

About a year and a half ago, during a Forum retreat, I was sitting in a hotel room with a Forum mate. I was just sitting there, wondering why it is we do what we do. My mental attitude and business outlook was at a really low point. Earlier that week, I sat down with my father and his lawyer to discuss his estate plans. He had saved and reinvested profits his entire life, only to be sitting in that office as an old man with a heart condition and a sizeable net worth the government would love to get their estate-tax-paws on.