To everyone who blindly believes in indexing we offer congratulations. Yesterday you successfully captured 100% of the downside. Kudos to you on a job well done. In the interim here's a piece from MorningstarAdvisor revisiting a paper published in 1994 that asked the provocative question, "Why Not 100% Equities?"
During a recent conversation with a client (who as CEO of her company often makes public comments - name, however, withheld for confidentiality reasons) she and I proverbially yelled at the kids to stay off our lawns. How?...by bemoaning how honesty has been killed off by political correctness and thinly-veiled attempts at sparing people’s feelings. [...]
The famous Taoist saying has become a lazy colloquialism: “Those who know don’t say – those who say don’t know.” It’s an accurate one, however, when it comes to the minimum wage argument. Politicians (many of whom have never run a business!) make the case that raising minimum wages (at the expense of those ‘greedy’ [...]
A hostile, anti-business Administration has Corporate America running scared. Fearful of being sued many companies are revamping their retirement plans NOT in the best interests of their employees but, instead, solely to avoid being sued for not focusing on providing “low cost” options. We previously wrote about the Supreme Court decision and foreshadowed the fallout. [...]
Many of us are familiar with the provision that interest against acquisition indebtedness (i.e. mortgages) up to $1,000,000 and another $100,000 of home equity is a Schedule A itemized deduction for income tax purposes. Unmarried taxpayers sought to "exploit" said provision by each claiming a mortgage interest deduction (thus doubling the limit) while the IRS [...]
“To them I say don’t believe the hype.” - Chuck D “Yo Chuck they must be on the pipe, right?” - Flavor Flav (Obscure references to Styx and Public Enemy in the same post? Time for a self-congratulatory pat on the back!) We’re not going to accuse the financial services industry of smoking crack but [...]
W. Scott Simon often serves in litigation and arbitrations as an expert witness on fiduciary issues. Similarly he frequently writes about the Uniform Prudent Investor Act. Consider the following from a recent article he authored about the problem with disclosing conflicts of interest: “Disclosures of conflicts made by many financial services providers tell you just [...]
In a practical sense the IRS typically has three years from the date an income tax return is filed in which to commence an audit. Failing to do so triggers the statute of limitations. Congressional action has overruled the U.S. Supreme Court. In some instances the IRS may take up to SIX years. There are [...]
Using 10 different data sets the folks at WalletHub have put together a summary of “housing market health” in 25 big cities. Useful? Nonsense? Good cocktail party conversation? Hmmm...
In December 2014 the Achieving Better Life Experience (“ABLE”) provision was signed into law providing a means for saving and paying for disability-related expenses. Recently the IRS issued proposed regulations which may be relied upon until (and if) final regulations are proposed. Highlights include: * States may offer tax-favored accounts or contract with other states [...]