Would you like a mutual fund with your stockings? That's what the folks at DuPont want to know. A wholly owned subsidiary of chemical giant E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company has launched a mutual fund. The folks who gave us Lycra, neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar and Tyvek will now give us investment products. Recently launched [...]
Receiving Social Security benefits? Expecting a Cost of Living Adjustment? Don't hold your breath. For the second straight year the Social Security Administration determined inflation has been too low warrant an increase. Read more here. (Link has been removed from Yahoo! News)
A provision in last month's Small Business Jobs and Credit Act will allow the self-employed to fully deduct health insurance expenses for the 2010 tax year. To qualify the business must be a sole proprietorship, single-member LLC or sole-owner S-corp. Important points of note are as follows: To take advantage of the deduction the self-employed [...]
The most recent annual survey by the Investment Company Institute ("ICI") shows mutual fund shareholders' willingness to assume investment risk has not rebounded since the 2007/2008 financial crisis. John Sabelhaus, ICI Senior Economist and survey co-author noted, "Nearly all mutual fund-owning households reported being focused on retirement saving and three-quarters of them reported that as [...]
Life is full of opportunities to teach to and learn from others. Recognizing these lessons is key to our growth and success. Is there truth to this? Maybe...or maybe it's our way of justifying the 30 minutes spent watching reruns of The Simpsons from its glory days. In the episode entitled "Homer the Vigilante" America's [...]
Tired of amended and late-arriving 1099s delaying your tax returns? Help is on the way. The House of Representatives passed on Wednesday the Regulated Investment Company Modernization Act (H.R. 4337) marking the first regulatory update of mutual fund taxation in over 20 years. The most notable provisions permit mutual funds to earn income from commodities [...]
What's more American than baseball, July 4th or apple pie? . . . . . it's the prenuptial agreement! You know what we're talking about. The "prenup" as it's come to be affectionately known is that device used by many a terrible movie, TV show and book to manufacture conflict. Well, maybe. More accurately the [...]
In our Sept 15th post we referenced an article highlighting the public's confusion over fiduciary standards. A new survey supports the idea that a single standard is warranted. Consider these findings from a recent Infogroup/Opinion Research Corp survey: 91% believe brokers should follow the same fiduciary standards as investment advisers 96% believe insurance agents should [...]
So who is and isn't looking out for the best interests of clients? Think it's your stockbroker? Three out of four Americans think so. Three out of four Americans are wrong. Find out more here.
Proposed legislation from our friends in the House and Senate: HR 5318 (The Small Business Investment Penalty Relief Act of 2010) would waive the 10% penalty on early distributions from retirement plans if the funds were used for small-business investments. The bill is similar to HR 3612 and HR 3390. S 3720 and HR 6099 [...]