Life Events

Clients rely on their advisor to reach their financial goals, yet few seek the same level of personalized, professional service when it comes to making healthcare decisions. A health advisor fills that gap.

As the global economy slows, we remain optimistic about the long-term growth potential of Chinese equities. From a public health perspective, China has flattened its curve of new cases COVID-19. Fiscal and monetary stimulus, while incremental, remains supportive. Interest rates remain positive, giving China's central bank room to maneuver.

The Federal Reserve are incorporating pandemic analysis into bank stress tests that could lead to reduced dividends for shareholders.

A brief monthly update on what's happening in the municipal bond market.

The team is relatively young but also is interested in appealing to advisors who may eventually want to retire to Florida.

Over the course of history, during world wars, pandemics, financial crises, and deep recessions, municipal bond defaults have been an extremely rare occurrence. There have been less than 700 rated municipal bond defaults in the over 100 years of public finance existence. As a point of comparison, we saw over 117 corporate defaults in 2019 alone.

Read Harold Evensky's latest NewsLetter.

Having trouble helping your clients appreciate a balanced portfolio? These charts may help.

Franklin Templeton’s 2020 US Retirement Income Strategies and Expectations survey revealed the importance of having a plan to help reduce financial-related stress—particularly relevant amid today’s uncertainties. Our Felix Touchard discusses some findings of the survey, and how respondents feel about their financial future.

In 1832 Martin Van Buren helped Andrew Jackson decide precisely when he would end the charter for the Second Bank of the United States – the only American central bank of issue before the establishment of the Federal Reserve.

The way to get people to think about death is to imagine that by doing so they will never die. Recognizing this universal character trait will lead to more productive planning outcomes.

I’m doing some wild things to stir up my Zoom calls. These ideas may be too radical for you. But humor me, read on and let me know what you think.

In their effort to improve things/prevent pain, Fed officials past and present financialized the economy. That, along with more unintended consequences from government debt and regulatory interventions (all well-intentioned, you understand) brought us to where we are today. We can’t walk it back without a great deal of pain no one wants to take, including your humble analyst.

It is imperative that all Americans see recent events around racial inequality as a call for action and work to ensure equality for people of color. In his latest memo, Howard Marks shares his thoughts and pledges to heed this call.

As expected, the Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged at 0-0.25% and said it will keep them near zero through at least 2022, in a unanimous vote.

Innovation has always been a key driver for the biotechnology industry. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still significant progress in the discovery and development of innovative drugs.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the renowned investment firm Tweedy Browne. The firm was originally a broker, and one of its clients was Benjamin Graham. I interviewed six members of Tweedy, Browne’s investment committee.

Between mid-February and late March 2020, we saw a “take no prisoners” market crash. Anything with a whiff of perceived risk crashed, in direct proportion to its perceived risk. The only assets that soared—because of tumbling interest rates—were long Treasury bonds, and with them, the net present value of pension obligations.

If your clients are in need of additional funds during this pandemic, Congress has made one source more available if you are fortunate enough to have an account balance in your retirement plan and your plan has adopted the new provisions allowed by the CARES Act.

Today, we’re going to look at some actual data, both medical and economic. Spoiler alert: The unintended consequences of our response may be more threatening than the actual virus, unless we begin changing some things soon.

As the economic fallout from COVID-19 threatens peoples’ livelihoods and erodes their short-term savings, it follows that their long-term financial security is also at-risk. What does it all mean for retirement savings and what steps can we take to build a more resilient system?

Many companies worry they’ll fall out of step with customers and employees if they don't take a public stand.

The new regional head of private wealth in New York says women entrepreneurs, multigenerational families are becoming more common.

True expertise is scarce and limited in scope. Howard Marks’s Uncertainty II — a postscript to his recent memo Uncertainty — explains why we should be careful about the “experts” we listen to and the weight we assign to their pronouncements.

In this part 2, I want to share an additional perspective that my research on the growing levels of corporate debt uncovered.

Today I’ll share some more insights from the Virtual Strategic Investment Conference. Frankly, I could go on for weeks like this, but this is going to be my last letter on the SIC. We had so much expertise and wisdom beamed in from all over the world. I’ll give you a few more highlights and then offer my own personal takeaway.

In order to sustain this population and our growing demand for resource-intensive animal-based foods, the World Resources Institute estimates that crop production will need to increase by 56% from a 2010 baseline.

The coronavirus kills, everyone knows it. But this isn't the first deadly virus the world has seen, so what happened? Why did we react the way we did? One answer is that this is the first social media pandemic. News and narratives travel in real-time right into our hands.

The pandemic created a nightmarish environment for advisors, who must cope with the human and financial toll on their clients. But a few farsighted practitioners are seizing the changes forced upon them to improve the way they serve their clients and manage their teams.

Roth IRAs look very appealing following market volatility and warnings that tax rates are bound to rise.

Denial and lack of cooperation from a mentally ill person can make treatment, caring and financial planning more difficult.

High-achieving female advisors have five things that they focus on daily.

I have analyzed data that improves our understanding of LTC needs and informs the decision-making about insurance.

A new study examined the impact of emotions on investments, financial risk and life in general, providing important insights and lessons for advisors.

The accelerated use of debt to fund the capital needs of publicly traded companies is clearly attributed to today’s unprecedented low cost of debt. Although we have all been trained and perhaps even indoctrinated into the belief that debt is bad, these are clearly unusual circumstances.

Some financial advisors report that they’re hearing from older clients who’ve grown accustomed to staying home and are worried about commuting and returning to crowded workspaces.

A brief monthly update on what's happening in the municipal bond market....

Whose name should a 529 plan be in? Does it matter if the owner is a parent versus a grandparent?

Weighty issues need to be considered before making expensive college commitments that could easily be disrupted in the coming months.

It’s your job to figure out why someone wants to engage in your services.

A compassionate society has both economic reason and ethical responsibility to provide a social safety net to its most vulnerable members. It is an act of both economic insanity and ethical corruption to provide a financial safety net to its most reckless speculators.

The largest federal budget deficit since World War II came back in 2009, as slower growth and increased government spending during the subprime-mortgage financial panic pushed the deficit to 9.8% of GDP. This year's the budget deficit will, quite simply, blow that record out of the water.

The bitcoin halving that occurred this past Monday is only the third such event in the cryptocurrency’s 11-year history. In the months following the first and second halvings, bitcoin prices surged as it became abundantly clear that at some point in the near future, new bitcoin issuances will come to a halt.

The Federal Reserve seemingly is an ongoing mission to destroy the bottom 90%.

Here are five financial and business realities that have figured in a majority of the counsel I’ve offered my female entrepreneur clients as they launch and refine their businesses.

Late last year, there were three people that we observed as optimistic about the prospects of the oil business. These people were Warren Buffett, Sam Zell and Peter Lynch. In revisiting their comments before and after the shutdown of the economy, we can see that two of the three have significantly altered their opinion.

As nations have closed borders, some individuals are facing the prospect of higher taxes from spending too many days in a foreign locale or having to shelve plans to obtain tax breaks by moving abroad.

COVID-19 makes 2020 a good year for clients to consider a Roth conversion, says leading financial advisor Elizabeth “Lizzie” Evans.

The recent market volatility has caused stress, fear and even panic. But that emotional toil can be alleviated by constructing what we call “dedicated portfolios,” rather than blindly following the precepts of modern portfolio theory.

Globally, there are two fundamental shifts happening in the current environment that are increasing the need for income-producing products. First, as baby boomers continue to retire from their work lives, the demand for investment income is likely to grow.

Will inflation soar? Will monetary policies work as intended, and what precedent are they setting?

The turmoil in the first quarter of 2020 reinforced the importance of rebalancing in target-date design. As we see it, a finely tuned, systematic approach can help keep emotions in check and risk under control—benefits that translate to many types of multi-asset solutions.

I started in the business in a mutual fund call center right out of college in 1999 (DVD players were all the rage, Y2K panic was a thing and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” was on). At that point, average annual returns were high for the S&P 500 and most mutual funds—until the bubble burst.

Coping in the current pandemic is tough in many ways, including psychologically, so it’s no wonder that many therapists have seen business surge as clients turn to them for guidance amid the unknown.

We are cautious today. This is a unique period of Knightian uncertainty. In a world of unbounded unknowns, protecting capital is paramount. However, the environment is in a state of flux and new information is developing at a rapid pace.

Many Americans are wondering whether college is worth the enormous sacrifice, and they just might conclude that there must be a better way.

This article describes the components necessary for special-needs planning.

Should I email an announcement about my mom’s passing to my clients?

Plunging interest rates and volatile equity markets are creating a once-in-a-lifetime chance that’s keeping wealth advisers busy even as they work from home.

As many of Advisor Perspective’s readers and contributors can testify, direct experience with the laws and regulations governing fiduciaries often leads to the conclusion that these rules were of, by and for the financial interests of the lawyers who made them.

Your clients are typically blindsided before they come to me. They believe that Medicare is “free” or is largely subsidized because, “I paid into the system my whole life and now I have to pay what?”

I examine new research that offers a way to algorithmically determine how to draw down one’s savings.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic governments imposed shelter in place rules for their citizens and issued orders to close all but essential business in their country. The collective impact resulted in an unprecedented global plunge in economic activity that threatens the existence of many small and medium size businesses...

The global coronavirus outbreak has changed everyday life in profound ways ― and will likely reshape the future as well. Tony DeSpirito identifies five areas of change that could have implications for investors.

Why is it that a fire on the other side of the planet attracts far more attention than a new innovation about to be rolled out, and how can investors take advantage of that? This is a question more relevant than ever, given the impact of the current Covid-19 outbreak.

Low Price to Something investing, or “value” investing as it has come to be known since Fama/French introduced the “value” factor has been a disaster for investors over the past 10 plus years.

The investment scene is beginning to resemble the 1929 market crash and the early 1930s Great Depression. This pandemic is likely to be the most disruptive financial and social event since World War II with equally long-lasting consequences.

When parents start the planning process for a child with special needs, they usually work under the perception that if they create a special needs trust, the child will be taken care of and the needs will be met. Unfortunately, creating a trust does not ensure that.

I am working on five key action items with clients to address some of the financial uncertainty many are experiencing.

When the harsh reality of the pandemic hit, I took stock of my own situation. A declining portfolio was the least of my concerns.

Client language is different from advisor language. If you want clients to understand you—and more importantly, you want to understand them—consider adopting these tips.

Bear markets beget portfolio losses, unhappy clients and, sadly, lawsuits against advisors. If you relied on any of the popular risk tolerance products to construct that portfolio, here’s how you are likely to fare under the careful scrutiny of an arbitrator.

Physical gold continued to catch a bid this week, trading above $1,760 an ounce, on a host of head-spinning economic news, from millions more Americans filing jobless claims to record money-printing to negative oil prices.

A growing body of research suggests segregating people by age isn’t healthy for anyone, young or old.

A tsunami of job losses is now reaching the offices of white-collar America --- where analysts and engineers find themselves among the rapidly swelling ranks of the unemployed.