Renters sometimes overlook the need for insurance based on the belief that they may not have a significant amount of personal possessions, or because the property is already insured by the owner. While it is true that a rental property is insured by the owner, the destruction or loss of your personal belongings is not. [...]
The city of Detroit emerged from bankruptcy in 2014. Still, its previous inability to pay investors left some questioning their long-held assumption about the relative safety of municipal bonds. Without question, in the wake of Detroit’s troubles, gaining a better understanding of municipal bonds makes more sense than ever.1 At their most basic level, there [...]
Understanding What Drives Higher Prices Can Help Improve Retirement Planning According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2024 Retirement Confidence Survey, 83% of workers are concerned that the higher cost of living will make it harder to save as much as they want toward retirement. If you’re like most retirement savers, you’ve likely had concerns [...]
Taking Advantage of a Roth Contribution Option Can Give You Some Flexibility in Retirement According to Vanguard’s “How America Saves 2024,” 82% of employers offer a Roth 401(k) option in addition to a traditional, or regular, 401(k) option. However, just 17% of employees contribute to a Roth. If you have access to a Roth 401(k) [...]
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is scheduled to sunset. Get your planning done soon so you don't miss out. "Due to personally owned life insurance and estate growth over time, more clients than you might think could be impacted by the estate tax sunset." The current estate tax exemption amount is historically high, but it’s [...]
The State of Play In a July 21 open letter posted on social media, President Biden wrote that he has concluded “it is in the best interest” of the Democratic Party and the country for him to “stand down from reelection” and subsequently posted on X that Vice President Kamala Harris has his “full [...]
The S&P 500 strung together 37 record highs this year aboard an 18.1% rally, as of July 10. The advance has largely been powered by a handful of mega cap names tied to technology and/or artificial intelligence. In fact, six stocks — NVIDIA (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Alphabet [...]
With stock valuations elevated after such a strong first half, earnings growth will be key to holding, or potentially building on these gains. LPL Research believes stocks have gotten a bit over their skis, but earnings season may not be the catalyst for a pullback in the near term given all signs point to another [...]
Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs) come up often in financial planning conversations, particularly for clients who have a strong need to mitigate capital gains tax issues. A QOZ is a classic example of one investing tool which delivers the most value as one component of a multifaceted strategy. A QOZ has four main benefits: Defer the [...]
Small Business Owners - Dance Your Way to Tax Benefits Jazz up your financial dance floor by steering clear of the dull groove of inaccurate record keeping! Picture this: a well-choreographed routine of meticulous bookkeeping, where every dollar waltzes in and out, setting the stage for a financially focused business extravaganza. Keep those records in [...]
