Mr. Blacker earned his Bachelors Degree in Accounting from Bentley College in 1966. In 1969 he earned his law degree from New England School of Law and in 1978 he received a Masters Degree in Taxation from Boston University. Since 1969 Mr. Blacker has been engaged in the private practice of law in Boston with emphasis in the areas of real estate, taxations and estate planning. He has also been educating individual and groups regarding the use of §1031 and acted as a Qualified Intermediary since 1989.

Tax-free exchanges of real estate have been part of the Internal Revenue Code almost from its inception.

Prior to forming Newport Exchange, attorney Blacker read the law, the cases and the treatises dealing with section 1031 and real estate exchanges. At that time, in order to bring about an exchange, two, three, four or more parties were utilized. This made for complex transactions that only the most sophisticated could deal with.

In 1989, Blacker developed a simple way to utilize the IRS provisions so that even the most unsophisticated taxpayer could utilize the benefits of section 1031.

In 1991 the Treasury Department developed regulations that clarified the way the section was to operate. While the regulations made some changes to the way Newport facilitated the exchange, it was very similar.

With the advent of the IRS regulations, Newport Exchange Corp. has further refined its operations so that today, the only parties effectively involved in the exchange are the taxpayer and the intermediary, Newport Exchange Corp.