HEADLINE: The IRS has postponed for 2024 required minimum distributions (“RMDs”) for non-spouse beneficiaries of inherited IRAs. Details here. DETAIL: In legislation passed by Congress in 2019 non-spouse beneficiaries of IRAs would need to zero out accounts within 10 years. It was interpreted to mean that no distributions could be taken for the first nine [...]
We’ve written quite a bit about how the S&P 500’s returns can be skewed by the largest stocks. For context you can read all about it here. Today we’d like to provide yet another example. YTD the S&P 500 is up 21%. That’s not to say each of the 500 stocks is up 21%. Rather [...]
Stories serves many functions. One of our favorites is about a prospect who did not ultimately become an Apollo client. The husband was a physician – the wife a corporate controller (so presumably financially astute). Given their high tax bracket they were adamant their portfolio skew towards muni bonds. We explained a number of factors [...]
On Friday the Internal Revenue Service announced it would continue to delay enforcing relatively new rules for inherited retirement accounts. The result of the delay is that some accountholders will be able to forgo taking a distribution for 2023. Prior to 2019 people who inherited retirement accounts could “stretch” distributions over their lifetimes. In 2019 [...]
Does George Costanza work at ProPublica? They sure do have a peculiar way of viewing the truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ This article makes the case that the “wealthy” “dodge” taxes by “skirting” law. (Interesting use of coded language – thanks ProPublica!) Do the "wealthy" take advantage of tax loss harvesting? Absolutely. Know who else does? [...]
It’s been well documented that the pain of loss exceeds the joy of gain. It logically follows that most investors would prefer to outperform a benchmark during a bear market (i.e. lose less) than a bull market (i.e. earn less). Seems intuitive. If markets are up 20% and you earn 15% you’re happy you’re making [...]
Since the start of the COVID pandemic (Jan 2020) the S&P 500 has provided a total return (inclusive of dividends) of roughly 28%. That’s about 10%/yr and on par with the average annual ROR of the index. That’s some forest! . . . and yet many people are hyperfocused on individual trees: lockdowns supply [...]
Owning a mutual fund or ETF tracking the S&P 500 provides broad diversification, right? After all you’d own 500 stocks. The fallacy is a function of not understanding how a cap-weighted index functions – namely the largest stocks have an outsized impact on returns. This works in both up and down markets. As of Tuesday [...]
Oil is up. Everything else is down. I need to do something. What do I do? Here is a good place to start.