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 [...]
Beginning Oct 15th Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period (“AEP”) will begin. It runs through Dec 7th for coverage effective Jan 1st. AEP allows Medicare recipients to reevaluate coverage for Part C (Advantage) and Part D (Prescription Drug). Studies show most people overpay. Why? They base purchase decisions on premium instead of individual health care needs. The [...]
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 [...]
Are we living longer? Absolutely. Should we factor this into pension funding obligations? Not according to the IRS. The Society of Actuaries released new mortality tables in 2014 to better reflect how long Americans are living. The IRS was expected to adopt the new tables. Instead the IRS has decided to use tables developed 15 [...]
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) [...]
One day the DJIA is down 500 pts. The next it’s up 300 pts. The next it’s down 700 pts before reversing course to close up 900 pts. The next... Whatever happens on a daily basis you can call us Jimmy Crack Corn because we don’t care. It’s a frustrating time. We’re loathe to comment [...]