A will is the foundation of your estate plan and it is essential if your financial affairs are to be settled in accordance with your wishes. If you die without a will, or “intestate” as the law refers to it, essentially the state becomes your executor and your property will be distributed according to its laws. Drawing up a will has become so easy, and it is relatively inexpensive, leaving very little reason why everyone...
It’s tax season again, and a question we get from a number of clients after receiving their yearend statements is, “Are my investment advisory fees tax deductible?” And the answer is an equivocal, “It depends.” Congress did grant a tax deduction for certain investment expenses, but with anything to do with the tax code, the devil’s is in the details. Not to worry though, we’ll use this opportunity to settle the issue no matter your...
While the current stock market boom has some people rejoicing it doesn’t appear as though their level of anxiety has abated much. Investors sometimes have short memories, but a stock market rally s is not likely to make people forget the carnage left behind in their 401(k) s and stock portfolios after one of the worst market declines in our history. Perhaps at no other time in our recent history have investors been so acutely...
When the decision to buy life insurance is finally made it brings a sense of relief and comfort to most, until they begin the agonizing process of deciding which kind of life insurance to buy. The choices are many, and the process can be daunting, however, it is made easier when you have at least a basic understanding of the difference between term life and whole life. At their core, term and whole life are...
Money is just one of those things that sometimes brings people as much pain as it does pleasure. As the economy in an up cycle of the recession, things are looking better but just the thought and uncertainty of an unstable economy is often enough to bring the fear back into people’s minds The first step to managing financial stress is to identifying what is beyond your control. For most of us, a few things...
Choosing a financial advisor is tough. There are generally a lot of options so how do you differentiate the crème de la créme of advisors who you can really trust to manage your hard-earned money? Why don’t you test drive a few models before you make a final purchase? Most financial advisors offer a “free consultation” or some kind of ‘getting-to-know-you’ meeting where you can ask some questions before you commit. If you only ask...
You may have heard statistics or evidence that multitasking can actually make people less efficient. Actually, in many cases that’s true. Generally speaking, multitasking decreases the level of knowledge and understanding in a given task; and, sometimes it can lead to doing many things but not really accomplishing anything. Before you get discouraged, however, think about this: what if the people studied in these statistics and data were just doing it wrong? Perhaps the outcome...
By John Dorfman Bloomberg News August 2, 2010 Consumer confidence last week hit its lowest level in five months, the Conference Board reported in its monthly sentiment survey. The confidence index fell to about 50, far below its 20-year average of about 94. Many observers are taking the news hard. “Faith in the economic recovery is failing,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed- income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. For investors in the...
By Annie Gasparro The Wall Street Journal June 14, 2010 As 2009 came to a close, financial advisers geared up for an expected flood of clients looking to convert their traditional individual retirement accounts to Roth IRAs this year. Conversions are indeed way up from previous years, thanks to the elimination of the income limit for those wanting to make the switch. But many clients who had expressed interest are deciding not to convert. Conversion...
By Laurie S. Goodman Financial Analysts Journal June 2010 With the apparent stabilization of home prices and the increase in existinghome sales, many investors believe that the housing market has bottomed and is beginning to recover. I believe that such optimism is premature. To be sure, there are many positives in the housing market: Prices have fallen significantly, housing is more affordable now than at any time in the past two decades, and the tax...
By Lawrence M. Dan Kennicott Capital May 6, 2010 Some of you may have already seen the news about the severe volatility in the markets today. Tomorrow morning's headline story will probably be the "largest single day drop in the stock market (the Dow Jones Index was down 990 pts or 9%). Although accurate, the headline does not tell the whole story as the market had a significant bounce off its low of the day...
By Mark Hulbert The New York Times February 22, 2009 There’s yet more evidence that it makes sense to invest in simple, plainvanilla index funds, whose low fees often lead to better net returns than hedge funds and actively managed mutual funds with more impressive performance numbers. Basic stock market index funds generally aspire to nothing more than matching the returns of a market benchmark. So in a miserable year for stocks, index funds may...
