Fiduciary Advice

Last week’s Beyond Meat IPO was stellar as the Uber IPO was about to arrive. Then Uber flopped big time. And new tariffs with China sent markets straight down. Events like these can make you wonder what steps you need to take, if any, and which information is practical and useful. Fiduciaries think about this every day. Here’s a checklist…

It’s easy to reduce your financial world to numbers and dollar signs, but there’s much more to the story than that. Expanding your focus to your Financial Quality of Life lets you approach financial information and decisions with a better understanding of your true opportunities and what they mean for you and your family. Here are five ways to give…

By now Hannukah and Christmas are over, and the New Year has yet to arrive. Amidst the ebbs and flows of markets, business and life, this window of time presents a perfect opportunity to simply, relax. Yes, one of the hardest things to do is to relax and enjoy this time of year with loved ones.  At the same time, you can be grateful for all that you have – life, health, challenge, mystery, friends, companions and family. There will be plenty of time in the New Year to talk about investments in 2019 and 2020. Let’s enjoy the waning days of 2018 and celebrate them.

Intense market volatility over the last few months has been a good reminder that money needed in the next 3 to 24 months should not be in stocks. It should be in a safe, interest-generating investment. The first option that comes to mind is usually bank CDs with FDIC insurance. CDs, like many heavily marketed investment products, are often not the optimal choice. Here is what we are doing with cash today.

In 2010 I got two client inquiries to create an “Armageddon Portfolio,” a collection of assets that would hold its value come hell or high water. Recall that we had just pulled out of the financial crisis. Many expected a repeat. For some, pessimism was so high in 2010 there was no expectation for an increase in asset value; just maintaining value was plenty. What happened next?

It’s easy to think of inflation as financial weather – something we must endure and can’t control. While it’s true we can’t individually control the prices that grocers, automakers and landlords charge, we can, and should, control what we spend. We’re all familiar with the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. It tracks the cost of groceries, rent, utilities and other goods and services most of us use. When the cost of men’s sweaters go up, so does the index.

However unpleasant or dull the idea might seem, the trust and estate planning process is the true backbone of your family’s wealth. What happens after you’re no longer around to make family wealth decisions will either be based on your clearly documented instructions or the decisions of a judge. Shouldn’t you be the one to decide what happens? Here are…

Markets hum along to their own beat and rhythm, until they don’t. From time to time, the music suddenly stops. It might be fears of a trade war that trigger a sudden silence and jarring price dislocations. It might be Korea, protests in Jerusalem, or bankruptcy fears in China. We typically get no advance warning, and never know how long…

It’s been 20 days since the Dow peaked at 26, 400.  After a wild ride, the index is back within a few percentage points of that level. While very little has changed in the diversified portfolio of long-term investors, some casualties of the market flip-flops have floated to the surface. One is LJMIX. Here’s the story of a fund that took a few bad days and turned them into bona fide disasters.  What can we learn from its mistakes?