In addition to building a healthy foundation through developing trustworthy relationships, one of the most important tasks of the partnering team is assessing the level of contribution each partner provides to the overall success of the project. Each member of the alliance has completed an internal assessment identifying its own needs and learned how it can help satisfy its partner’s needs. It is during the initial activity that the whole puzzle comes together. It is at this stage that each member begins to realize how its individual contributions are turned from proposed benefits into tangible assets. This is accomplished by bringing the partnering team together and designing a plan to implement a task.

To begin the initial activity process, assemble the team that will be responsible for implementing the activity. Once the team is together, review the Initial Activity Team Checklist (Exercise 15) for use during the team-building and planning session. This session will probably take place over a period of days or even weeks, depending on the scope of the activity. The checklist covers both the Stages of Relationship Development and the Stages of Partnership Development. In the initial meeting it is important to spend time on developing the relationship. Note, however, that people will want to move right to tasks. It is important that they understand that by establishing the relationship issues first, they will save time in the long run. Ultimately, when people go directly to tasks, relationship issues impede task development, causing conflict and frustration.

In our Bank of America/Exult case, the task portion of the business was easy. Each team had process integration people paired up to ensure seamless flow of information and data between the two organizations. But it was the time spent up front that enabled them to build trust with each other, helping them endure the tough times.

Gather support for the partnership from the organization’s employees. Keep the employees informed about what’s going on and why it is occurring. Point out how the partnership will benefit the organization. Talk about how it will provide job security by increasing marketing capabilities, opportunities for product distribution, and technological innovation. The employees need to support the partnership for it to be successful.

Once the partnering team for the initial activity has been selected, it is important to choose an initial project that creates a win-win outcome for all parties and has a good chance of success. An example of such a project is one undertaken by the Public Works and Traffic Division of the District of Columbia. The city government was in a state of chaos. Among the more evident symptoms was its inability to replace damaged and vandalized parking meters within a reasonably quick time frame. The city was losing thousands of dollars a day in revenue since people couldn’t drop coins into the meters. In an excellent example of a public-private partnership, the district formed an alliance with Lockheed Martin IMS to remedy the situation.

Lockheed Martin IMS agreed to take over maintaining and replacing city parking meters. In exchange, the city agreed to give Lockheed Martin a percentage of the total revenue collected. Each party won. Parking meter revenue began to increase, and the city’s image began to improve as the public perception of meter care improved. Things looked less run-down and seemed better cared for. Lockheed Martin began to turn a small profit in the deal and was assured of continued city contracts.

I see a clear parallel with business partnerships. The time we spend getting to know our partners will pay off in terms of more trust, less friction, and more productivity in the end. In the Initiate Stage of Partnership Development, we can plan to limit pressure by negotiating realistic timelines and defining ahead of time how we’ll measure our success. We can clarify what we want from each other up front and agree on our partnership mission. Like the astronauts, we can be clear about what tasks we need to perform. But we can also commit to developing the relationship with our partner as a prerequisite for success. In the Initiate stage, we start to move away from planning our partnership and toward the activities we created the partnership to accomplish. In other words, now we are ready to start a task.

When initiating your partnership, it is important to remember to keep the task and relationship activities balanced. Spending the time up front will result in exponential benefits in the end. In the first trimester of development, you want to spend about two-thirds of your time on relationship development and about one-third on task design. This is also true once you have identified your partner and are initiating an activity. It is important to build the relationship with the partnering team implementing the initial activity. The challenge at this step is to build a strong relationship between the partners while creating a plan for a successful task.

The installment sale is another significant technique for deferring  payment of capital gains taxes. Here, sellers elect not only to  sell property but also to put up some or all of the financing needed  to make the deal work. Because the property is being sold now but  paid for later, such deals are called “installment sales.” Where taxes  are concerned, an installment sale differs from the 1031 exchange  because you actually sell the property without getting a new one in  return, but you still defer paying some or most of your capital gains  taxes. Here’s how:

Until you actually receive the profit from the sale of  your property, you don’t owe the IRS a penny. Instead,  with an installment sale you would be carrying the note  (and your profit from the sale) long term and receiving  interest-only payments from the buyer. The idea is to keep  earning a high interest on the taxes due for many years.

By doing this you would delay paying the capital gains  until the contract is complete.  The rules for qualifying for an installment sale were significantly  modified by the Installment Sales Revision Act of 1980. In the  past there were rules regarding the amount of down payment and  the number of years needed to qualify. These no longer exist. The  advantage of an installment sale now is that you are required to pay  capital gains tax only on the amount of the profit you receive in one  year. You pay the balance of the tax due as you collect the profit in  subsequent years.

Emotional compatibility is not a statistic within a range that incorporates the entire population such as an intelligence quota (IQ). It is a matching process. In relationships, each unique individual is matched with another unique individual. There are many types out there. If you find yourself always with the wrong type, get help.

The same is true for investment compatibility. There are hundreds of asset classes. Step 1 discusses the emotional implications of all the major and many minor investment classes. Fortunately, if you find yourself incompatible with the stock market, the chances of finding better investment satisfaction elsewhere are high. In the case of Michael and Susan, once they work on their investment maturity, they will find many asset classes that suit them better than stocks.

The chambers of commerce of many countries put on events all over the world to lure investors to their countries. In many countries, when you go there and reveal that you are an investor, you will be treated with respect and given a lot of support and assistance.

When you have invested in a country, you will often be treated like royalty and offered even more investments that may not already be publicly available. And when you have invested sufficiently in some countries, you will get invitations to advise them, joint-venture with them, or sit on their corporate boards.

What a sharp contrast to other professions! A few people have admonished me for suggesting investors look beyond their own borders, claiming that real estate is so complex, and that the laws regarding real estate are so involved, that it is difficult to keep up with the regulations in your own turf, let alone in a foreign country. Consequently, they claim, investing overseas is risky and foolish, and I am just grandstanding or showing off by talking about investing internationally.

Well, let’s consider a few alternative attitudes. First, few people living in the United States realize this, but the value of the U.S. dollar, when measured against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, has fallen in the seven years since the year 2000 by a massive 58 percent (as tourists traveling to Europe are finding out through the increased cost of a vacation there). In other words, if you had shipped $1 million overseas with the intent of investing it in real estate, but you never quite got around to making the investment, and today you repatriated the funds back to the United States, you would have more than $2 million. I have investors who took my advice and invested in New Zealand at a time when a United States dollar bought NZ$2.40. Today, that same NZ$2.40 buys over US$1.90. In other words, the value of their investment has nearly doubled without even taking into account how the investment in New Zealand has fared.

When you are eligible or required to take distributions, you can opt to receive either the entire sum or periodic distributions for the Rest of your life. You can also take in-kind distributions. The taxable amount, if applicable, is based on the fair market value of the asset at the time of distribution. For example, Babette’s and Peter’s Roth IRAs each owned a 50 percent share of a flat in London. Because they were prohibited to use it, they leased it. The rent was paid to their IRAs, which also paid for all expenses. But when they turned sixty-five, they each took their share of the flat as a distribution without tax consequences. Now they are enjoying living in it themselves.

If your IRA owns assets offshore, determining the fair market value is not quite as straightforward. If you have real property, you will need to get an acceptable appraisal and have the amount converted to U.S. dollars. In the case of cash, the value of the currency being distributed must be established on the date of distribution in U.S. dollars. For required minimum distributions, the fair market value of the account is determined as of December 31 of the previous year. This information needs to be reported to the IRS, regardless of whether the IRA is a traditional or Roth. When distributing an offshore asset, timing is important because of fluctuating exchange rates, so select the day of distribution carefully.