For investors who are at or near retirement, we believe two fundamental questions should almost always be asked: “do you have enough money to support your needs for spending in retirement, and, will your family be taken care of if you pass away?” In a previous post, we wrote about how to check to make sure you have saved enough to meet your retirement income needs. Now the question turns to, “do you have enough saved to support your spouse and family as well? Start with an Estate Planning Checklist An estate planning checklist can help you get organized and have a clearer picture of how prepared you are for retirement. Running through an estate planning checklist encourages you to inventory your assets and debts, update your beneficiaries to make sure the assets go to the right places, and formalize everything through legal documentation. Once you’ve done that, you can get to answering the question posed in this piece: “is your nest egg big enough to support your family?” Investors should address this in two parts: [+] Read More

If you were to ask us to answer that question in short, here’s what we would say: Remain calm, patient, and try not to make decisions based on emotion. As we've written before on stock market corrections, they can be rather unnerving, but at the same time they are a normal part of rising markets, and they’re usually short-lived. It’d be great if the market always went up in a straight line, but unfortunately it does not and there are often pullbacks along the way. So, knowing that corrections will likely occur quite a bit over time, what’s the best investment strategy for handling a stock market correction? We go back to the statement we made at the beginning of this post. Remain Calm Often times when the market starts to decline, you’ll see a lot of news headlines that invoke worry about the state of things. A top headline today on Bloomberg, for instance, read: “US Stocks Retreat Following Worst Week Since 2012.”1 That certainly doesn’t make many people feel warm and fuzzy about the market. [+] Read More

Tax season is gearing up and there are various deadlines depending on your tax situation. The below report lists out important dates throughout 2014. It also contains useful 2014 tax planning tables and information for several items, including: Income tax rate schedules, alternative minimum tax (AMT), capital gains, losses, and dividends, education planning, retirement accounts, Social Security benefits, Medicare tax rates, health and long-term care, federal trust and estate income tax, estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax, corporate income tax and municipal bond taxable-equivalent yields. Download the Full Report Here [+] Read More

As we approach the New Year, it’s a good time to take a closer look at the more impactful themes and stories we think investors should consider when preparing their 2014 investment strategies. Here are five that we believe could impact the market and investor portfolios moving forward. Be sure to discuss these with your Financial Advisor to see if your investment portfolio is prepared. 1) How the Janet Yellen Federal Reserve Could Affect Your Portfolio If Janet Yellen gains Senate approval in the coming days to become the next Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair, she’ll take over on February 1.1 Investors are almost certain to watch her closely from day 1, searching for any kinds of policy-setting signals she might give. We believe the key factors to watch are how and when she intends to pare back the quantitative easing programs, better known as QE. Based on Yellen’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, her letters to lawmakers, and her track record, she appears in favor of continuing stimulus measures. This could mean an extension of the current quantitative easing programs with the Fed also holding their benchmark interest rate close to zero throughout all of 2014, which could be a positive for the economy and for portfolios.1 On the other hand, if market participants believe the Fed to be paring back those programs prematurely, it could be a negative event for the markets. Investors should speak with their financial advisor to find out if their portfolios are positioned with these monetary policy outcomes in mind. [+] Read More

For investors thinking about purchasing an annuity, there are two things they should do first. One, speak with a financial advisor (other than the one trying to sell you the annuity) so you can get an unbiased explanation of how the annuity contract works. Second, consider these three reasons not to buy an annuity. Reason 1: Limited Control of Your Principal, Income, and Investment Options Money in Annuities May be Locked Up Most types of annuities restrict access to your principal for a certain number of years. If you have an unforeseen need for cash and have to exit the contract early, you might have to a pay a penalty to access your money. [+] Read More

Hiring a money manager is one of the more important decisions an investor can make, and it’s also a challenging one. To make matters a bit easier, we’ve outlined nine steps an investor should take to get the research and due diligence process started. [+] Read More

If you’ve recently retired or are about to, congratulations! It’s probably been a long road, and your next step is to make sure that path continues during retirement. This means it’s time to speak with your financial advisor to create, or update, a comprehensive investment plan. Here’s a brief “how to prepare for retirement” guide to help you get started. [+] Read More

Many investors are tempted to manage their own investment accounts. Some have a great deal of interest in the stock and bond markets and enjoy the challenge. Others may want to just save money in fees. In either case, an investor shoulders the critical responsibilities of making sure their investments perform well and meet their needs for the long-term. This is a challenging task. Before deciding to self-manage, we’d consider these three benefits to hiring money managers to do it for you. Save Time and Reduce Stress Retirement should be about enjoying the fruits of your labor and reaching your lifelong goals. Self-managing investments may become a hindrance to achieving this, because the amount of time, research, and the frequency with which someone needs to make critical decisions is great. Hiring money managers places these responsibilities on someone else. [+] Read More

When someone leaves an employer to retire or join another employer, there are often decisions about what to do with their 401(k). There are several 401(k) rollover options and it’s not always as simple as just rolling it into an IRA. Here are some tips investors should consider before making a decision about how to rollover a 401(k). Tip #1: Use the Rollover as an Opportunity to Evaluate Your Financial Plan Rolling over a 401(k) involves creating a new account and choosing new investments. An investor should also use the opportunity to review all of their investments and evaluate their long-term goals. It’s a perfect time to think about investment objectives, risk tolerance, and to determine whether current funds or money managers are meeting the plan’s needs. Think of a 401(k) rollover as an opportunity to enhance your financial plan and investments. [+] Read More