Long Term Care insurance first appeared in the 1980s and is used to cover the cost of medical services in your home as well as in a assisted living or community facility, most of which are not covered by a traditional health insurance or Medicare. Long Term Care coverage helps support activities that people do in their daily lives, Read More
We’ve all heard it said “the stock market is a great investment over time”. It’s easy to say “yes, but”, especially in tumultuous times like these. But when the jitters and anxiety surface, it’s helpful to keep the historical perspective in mind. Read More
We’ve probably all heard it said recently…. “the Fed (Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee) is ‘just printing money’ right now”. However, it’s important to distinguish between the monetary base and money supply (“M2″).
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The chart below helps to confirm what we said last week about the stock market – as represented by the S&P 500 – being a real value right now.
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Estate Planning is one of the most important steps that any person can take to ensure that their property and their health care wishes are honored, and that loved ones are provided for in their absence (either death or incapacitation).
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Within the last several years, increased media attention and litigation regarding management of retirement plans has caused us to revisit the phrase “fiduciary responsibility” and what that entails. In 2010, the Employee Benefits Security Administration closed 3,112 civil investigations of Employee Benefit plans. 73.94% of those investigations resulted in $1.05 Billion in monetary fines and corrective actions. How do plan sponsors act prudently, protect their interests, and avoid fines and litigation? They must follow the Exclusive Benefit rule which states that fiduciaries must act in the best interests of plan participants, not the company itself.
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Over time, earnings are what ultimately drive stock prices. The chart below shows the latest consensus 2011 and 2012 earnings forecasts (left axis) plotted against the S&P 500 (right axis). The earnings per share (EPS) estimates are “bottom-up” – the data comes from each of the 500 companies that comprise the S&P 500 index.
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In late 2008 a major story hit Wall Street. Bernard Madoff, a well respected money manager and former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market admitted to running a ponzi scheme and falsifying documents to defraud his clients of almost $65 billion. According to Madoff, the fraud began in the early 1990s, but many federal investigators believe that it started much earlier than that.
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EFT stands for Electronic Funds Transfer. An EFT is not a wire transfer but works instead like direct deposit. A link is set up between your brokerage account and your bank account so that withdrawals can be sent directly to the bank instead of a check by mail or overnight service. By setting up this feature on your account in advance, money transfers can be processed quickly, safely, and removes the need for your signature on a withdrawal form.
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What’s Behind the Eurozone Crisis?
Lately, the Eurozone has been the major financial news story of the day acting, for better or worse, as a major driver of world markets. If you were to ask most people what is behind the crisis they would immediately say government borrowing. But there is a little more to the situation than that (Greece excluded). Read More