Our Commentary

Major legislation since 2019 has significantly changed the rules and planning opportunities of qualified retirement accounts. We now have additional clarifications from the IRS regarding Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) following the SECURE Act (2019) and SECURE 2.0 (2022). Key points i...

While we have been focused on battling inflation and rapid home price appreciation, China, the world’s second-largest economy has been experiencing a bit of the opposite. Deflationary pressures have been weighing on the Chinese economy the last couple of years. All of which has recently been acceler...

Whether you are renting a vacation home or own a portfolio of properties, landlords should consider using an ownership structure that helps protect their interests and assets. The best structure to put in place for rental properties depends largely on what you are trying to protect against. For most...

Markets began the third quarter continuing their upward climb before reaching an all-time high on July 16th. However, a cooling economy and poor employment report had the market concerned about a recession, leading to a 9% drop over the ensuing 3 weeks. Negative sentiment peaked on August 5th when t...

If you are a retiree dependent on a fixed income, or a young person looking to buy your first home, this economy is not working for you. However, if you are a homeowner and in the middle of your career, your wealth has increased nicely over the last few years. This dichotomy underscores the complexi...

Markets began the second quarter with a reprieve from the 18-month tear they had been on. By the third week in April, global equities were down 5% from where they began the quarter. However, their fortunes reversed as they rallied 7.5% over the ensuing 10 weeks to finish the quarter up 2.5%. Bond...

My wife and I recently gave birth to our daughter, Elle! She is our first child, and we are getting a crash course in all the modern baby products and AI driven gadgets, promising to make parenthood a breeze – I’m not holding my breath! While it may seem like there is no time for anything other than...

Many, if not most of us, have purchased some form of life insurance during our lives, or have owned it as a benefit from an employer. As time goes on, our insurance needs change and it can be an expensive mistake to not periodically review our insurance coverages. Why do we buy life insurance?...

The 2023 rally wouldn’t quit as the first three months of 2024 seemed to be an extension of the previous 12. U.S. Large Caps continued to be the best performers with other equity asset classes lagging.  Bonds turned in a poor quarter as interest rates rose 0.3% leading to a slight drop in bond price...

Expected returns for stocks are 8% to 10% annually. Expected returns for bonds are in the 4% to 5% range. So why do we hold bonds in our portfolios? Generally speaking, there are four main reasons to hold bonds. 1. Bonds lower the risk and dampen volatility in a portfolio. Bonds are sa...

The holidays are over and many retirees in cold-weather states are looking to migrate south for the winter. For New Yorkers, Florida offers not only sunshine and warmth, but also tax savings for those who intend to no longer make NY their primary home. That is because, unlike New York, Florida impos...

The 4th quarter saw strong performance from nearly all asset classes, capping what turned out to be a great year for capital markets. The biggest driver of performance in Q4 was better-than-expected inflation numbers. In August, the Core PCE (the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation) trailing 12 month...

We are seeing and hearing much more lately about our Nation’s deficit spending and the accumulated amount of National Debt. The deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2023, is estimated to be $1.7 trillion. The current total debt outstanding is approximately $33.5 trillion, up from $5.7 tr...

Following the SCOUTS decision to strike down the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan, most borrowers began making student payments last month after the three-year COVID freeze. The Biden administration announced a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan for federal student loans call...

Equities rallied through July in part thanks to corporate earnings that came in slightly better than expected. The market peaked on July 31st, at that time up 3.7% on the quarter and 18% for the year. Over the ensuing 3 weeks, markets fell 5.3% as longer-term interest rates rose by 0.40%. Stocks reg...

For those avid readers of our blog, a year ago we posted an article examining the interplay between consumer sentiment (how people feel about the economy), and actual subsequent 12-month returns of the S&P 500. A major takeaway was that historically people’s feelings about the state of the economy h...

American economist and Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Harry Markowitz, died last month at the age of 95. Harry Markowitz may be the most widely recognized name in the history of investment academia, research, and portfolio management. Before the publication of his research in the 1950’s, investment risk...

Stocks puttered along through April and May with little conviction. This changed in the final week of May which saw the start of a rally and by the end of June, US equities were up 8.3% for the quarter. International equities only gained 3% and bonds fell by 1% as interest rates rose. April was h...

Recently, a client told me she had read that private college would cost $250,000/year for children born today. Intuitively that seems crazy but where was the author getting that number and will they be correct? From 1990 to 2020 total inflation in the U.S. averaged 2.5%. Over the same period, edu...

Despite renewed inflation concerns and a banking crisis, equities gained about 7% during the quarter and bonds added 3% as interest rates fell. January was a quiet month and by February 2nd, stocks were up 9.7% to start the year. The rally was short-lived. The jobs report released on February 3rd...

It has been 50 years since economist Burton Malkiel first introduced the investing world to the stock-picking blindfolded dart-throwing monkey! If you are unfamiliar with Burton, he is a Princeton economist and veteran financial executive whose philosophy has become a cornerstone in modern invest...

We are beginning to hear more about the accumulated Federal debt. Why? The U.S. has been running an annual budget deficit for almost as long as we can remember. The last year with a budget surplus was 2001. The Federal Government typically runs a manageable annual deficit. In times of significant...

Recent news regarding bank failures has prompted some to question the health of Schwab as a going concern, and the safety of their investments. While these questions are understandable, we believe there is little reason to be worried. The first thing to remember is your securities—like stocks, bo...

In our Third-Quarter Newsletter, we highlighted potential legislation relating to retirement planning for people of all ages - with many of the most substantive changes impacting tax-advantaged savings accounts. These provisions, which are part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, of...

What is a Qualified Charitable Distribution (a “QCD”) and why might it be advantageous for those who can do them? A QCD is a distribution from your IRA directly to a qualified charity (versus taking a distribution from your IRA and then making a charitable contribution). A QCD counts towards yo...

  The 4th quarter was a much-needed reprieve from the poor performance of markets in the first 9 months of the year. Events like the midterm elections and the FTX/crypto blowup caught headlines along the way, but the driver of market performance continued to be inflation and the Federal Reserve....

Wall Street Journal reporter, Jason Zweig, published a fascinating story last week that details how difficult markets are to predict and provides great documentation of hindsight bias. Hindsight bias is the phenomenon where people perceive events in the past as having been more predictable than t...

A big headline in recent weeks has been the 8.7% cost-of-living increase Seniors will be getting next year. That increase, the largest since 1982, will be very useful in offsetting the higher costs consumers are seeing. Luckily for seniors, the good news didn’t stop there. Around the same time, i...

It’s human nature to prefer owning stocks that have performed well recently. But the reality is that returns tend to be cyclical and a decade of outperformance is usually followed by underperformance. In the stock market, there are countless examples of this phenomenon: Large Cap US Stocks in the...

As we get older and begin to reflect on our mortality, our priorities begin to change. In reading many articles and surveys about what is most important to retirees, the top of the lists include physical, mental and emotional health, relationships, socialization, and maintaining independence. Far...