A Fiduciary duty can be found in many professions however, within the context of investment advisors the duty begins and ends with loyalty and care.
The duty of loyalty is the obligation to always serve the clients’ best interest as well as the mitigating any conflicts of interest.
Most of the lessons we have learned as Advisors is how we turn communication into actionable and successful plans to reach your goals. How we utilize resources for your benefit and the process that takes place, provides us with insight on how to best serve you, our clients. Financial Advising is both an Art and a Science.
While there are several individuals in great need of the stimulus payments from the government for others it is a windfall. Likewise, tax refunds can be unexpected bonus income that you are not relying on for your regular expenses. So, what do you do with this money?
Making trade and investment decisions based solely on big events is hardly ever an effective strategy. Having said that, there were obvious concerns about how this year’s election would affect markets and planning strategies. The best thing to do would have been to pick an allocation which you felt comfortable with and ride whatever wave came along with the election results. Some investors sat the sidelines, some bought what they thought might be winners in whatever their assumed outcome scenario was. All in all, what occurred is what I mentioned in our previous election commentary blog – the markets only care that there IS a President.
Have you invested for retirement? Do you have extra cash flow? After you’ve built up a solid retirement base, here are some other strategies to consider:
General investment accounts provide you with flexibility. Individual or joint accounts can help you save for your short, medium, or long-term goals and allow you to invest without the restraints of tax-deferred accounts. Withdrawals are penalty-free in the near-term, though you will pay taxes on dividends and capital gains.
Financial planning is more than just investing. Holistic financial planning is the process of pursuing your life goals (planning for retirement, buying a home, saving for your child’s education, leaving a legacy for your family) through smart management of your resources. A solid financial plan includes goals, net worth, cash flow, retirement strategies, long-term investments, and estate planning.
Many believe that their money is locked in when you are a participant in a 401(k) or profit sharing plan through an employer where you are a participating and current employee. However, certain qualifying events allow employees to access their vested balance to either withdraw and/or roll over money from those accounts and still continue to contribute.
Earlier this month, we discussed dollar-cost averaging as a strategy for investing which can offer you a higher average rate of return over the long-term and a seamless means of investing each month without too much pain for your wallet. Today, we will discuss the best way that you can achieve this strategy through the concept called “Pay Yourself First”.
Market moves can be choppy at times and downright terrifying. This is one reason many would-be investors never take the leap into investing their savings. We know that in order to make your dollars last, we must take on some risk in order to grow them. Then our rational minds try to determine that perfect moment to begin, which in itself is an impossible task - as we all know that trying to time the market is a fool’s errand. You can avoid the stress of getting together a lump-sum to invest and make saving possible without having to overthink it by utilizing the principle of dollar-cost averaging.
The period between Thanksgiving and the end-of-year holiday season would seem like a sleepy time for financial planners, but in fact it is anything but. You might be surprised at how much activity takes place on behalf of you and your investments in the final month of the year.
For instance? Even though this has been a good year in the markets, not all investments will have gained value. This is the last opportunity to harvest any losses we find in taxable accounts, by selling investments that have gone down and “booking” the loss. Then we can look for investments that have gained value, sell some of those to offset the losses, and thereby save capital gains taxes in the future. Up to $3,000 of ordinary income can be offset by investment losses as well.
This is also the time of year when mutual fund companies post, in advance, the amount of ordinary income and capital gain distributions they will make to their shareholders. Since the value of the shares drops by the amount that is distributed, this would seem like a non-event performance-wise. But in fact some mutual funds are poised to make 20% or even 30% distributions, and this cash is immediately taxable, unlike gains in the share values, which are only realized when you decide to sell. By selling funds before the distributions, and buying them back later, we can reduce your tax bill this year.
