Last week the IRS told us what’s new in 2016. While some items remain unchanged there are interesting developments with 401(k) contribution limits, income tax brackets and deductions, IRA contributions, the estate tax credit, AGI phase outs and more. More than 50 tax-related items were addressed. A partial summary and some of the more interesting [...]
The Pope? Cigarettes? ISIS? Justin Bieber? Let’s start the weekend on a light note with some interesting "the dog ate my homework" explanations for corporate quarterly earnings misses.
Forget your feelings about attorneys. If nothing else law schools have one thing right. They need to break down students before they can build ‘em up again. Why? To think in a certain way means to stop thinking another way. In the financial planning world we fight the same battle. It’s emotionally and physically draining [...]
Carl Richard is a believer in The KISS Principle. He spends his time providing financial education by explaining complex strategies and terms using simple, easy to understand diagrams. You can find examples in his weekly “Sketch Guy” column in The New York Times and his book “The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb [...]
What’s the best way to achieve superior, long-term, risk-adjusted returns? On one side of the argument are the efficient market devotees. They argue cost and turnover are the prime factors of fund performance. Nothing else matters since it isn’t possible to ‘beat the market.’ On the other side of the argument are those with functional [...]
It’s a common question from clients. “I live in _____ so why do you want me to set up a trust in Alaska?” Financial planners, estate attorneys, wealth managers, CPAs and insurance folks alike have long favored states like Alaska, Delaware, Nevada and South Dakota for trust situs due to their trust-friendly laws enforced by [...]
Much confusion exists in the minds of consumers about who in the financial services world is a fiduciary. Currently the product-pushers are lavishing ungodly sums of money upon Washington as their army of lobbyists seeks to water down or eliminate a uniform fiduciary standard. And these are the people who claim to be looking out [...]
As the end of the year approaches many people start thinking about Required Minimum Distributions (“RMDs”). While typically a straightforward process (aggregated prior year-end values divided by the appropriate factor from the IRS table) there are some stumbling blocks that often give people fits. AGGREGATED DISTRIBUTION: Distribution from one non-inherited traditional IRA may be used [...]
The Aon Hewitt 401(k) Index tracks trading activity across 1.3 million 401(k) accounts representing approximately $160 billion of, ahem, “long-term” investments. What did these “long-term” investors do during recent market volatility? Preceding the volatility average daily trading volumes for July and August were in line with normal levels. On Fri 8/21/15 when the S&P 500 [...]
Remember those turbulent financial markets? Nah, that was sooooo last week. This is 2015 – the social media age. Big Media has already moved on to important topics like recapping the VMAs. Since it was so long ago we think a quick refresher is warranted: 1) Nothing fundamentally changed 2) Financial markets sold off. 3) [...]