Prior to our client meetings, we send out a brief questionnaire to understand what we can prepare in advance to assure our time together is valuable. In a recent questionnaire, a client asked a great question, “How will the latest tax reform bill impact my 2018 return?” During lunch with a CPA last week, I learned that she…
Oil prices have a stealthy way of luring investors into the complacency of a trading range, before taking a dramatic turn on the cusp of a single geopolitical factor (often in the Middle East) or variety of coinciding factors. With any asset, it all comes back to the confluence of supply and demand that drives…
Last week, I sat down with one of my long time clients. She and I were discussing the volatile stock market as of late, and I was sharing with her that corrections and pullbacks are a part of a normal, healthy market. (I’ll define a correction as the stock market dropping by more than 10%…
There are financial terms that, as advisors, we often use as if they are a part of everyday conversation. Some clients will get a bit giddy when we use terms like asset allocation, beta, correlation, and diversification. The other 95% will nod their head as if in agreement while thinking, “Please make it stop!” As…
Market volatility has obviously been ramping up as of late, with one of the catalysts being the announcement of various layers of tariffs by the U.S. administration. This rhetoric has been targeted at China, which has responded with a series of their own retaliatory tariffs. These are yet to go into effect in most cases,…
The juxtaposition of a bull and a bear to describe capital markets is thought to have originated in the early 1700’s. Even though several stories exist, there is no definitive answer as to which, if any, is correct. The following is to help you sound well educated should this question come up at a future…
At the end of last week, the news was dominated by President Trump’s announcement to implement tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products. This has a lot of us wondering how those tariffs would look in practice. Our on-staff Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder Ryan Long shares his insight in March’s first question of the week. Question:…
Recently, one of our client families came to us with questions around how best to finance a down payment for their future home. A young couple, their home was perfect back when it was just the two of them. But several years and a couple of kiddos later, they feel they’re outgrowing it. Rather than…
The market highs set in 2017 may have you a bit nervous. How much longer can this bull market go? Here’s Larry’s take.
Last month, our team of financial advisors wrote about cryptocurrencies and bitcoins. We gave you an overview on the mysterious investment and highlighted some of the dangers. Today, cryptocurrencies are making headlines again. With exponential gains in bitcoins dollar price (currently over $18,000 per unit), coupled by the rollout of a futures market for the currency,…