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Blog

What’s on our mind? You can read about it in our blog. Whether it’s ideas from the industry or emerging trends, you can read about it here. And once in a while, we may throw in a book review or some other surprise. So keep checking in. We’re glad to have you reading along.

 

Friday, December 18, 2020

Years ago, when we went camping at Anastasia State Park, one of our children had the brilliant idea of making a bear trap to protect us as we slept. This ingenious contraption consisted of strings tied to sticks hammered into the...

 

Friday, December 18, 2020

If we have learned anything from the events of 2020, it is to remind ourselves of what is truly important in our lives. This year has reinforced for us how much a sense of purpose is essential to living a fulfilled life. The simple...

 

Thursday, November 19, 2020

It hardly seems like 49 years since the song Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who became a big hit. Every election the song comes to mind as I ponder how we do allow ourselves to be repeatedly fooled. We read newspaper articles and...

 

Thursday, September 17, 2020

We can drive a nail with a wrench and we can unscrew a nut with a pair of pliers. When we lack the proper tools that is better than nothing. Still, we should always use the right tool for the right job. This is also true with our...

 

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Anybody who grew up in a northern tourist town can relate to the movie Jaws. For the fictional community of Amity Island, the season bookended by Memorial Day and Labor Day represents life or death for the tiny village. The killer...

 

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Tuesday, June 2, 2020

A small group of strangers gathered on Memorial Island at 4:00 AM on February 8, 2010 to watch the last space shuttle pierce the night sky over Florida. Following the launch, we quietly shared our mutual sense of having lost something....

 

Friday, May 15, 2020

By far, the most rewarding aspect of this job is helping clients deal with the challenges in their lives. Helping people work through emotional decisions or a family crisis is especially important in making our jobs meaningful. Asset...

 

Monday, May 4, 2020

As a teenager, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the New Tamiami Air Race, which took place here in Florida. My luck came about because, during high school, I hung around a local airfield owned by the renowned polar explorer,...

 

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

So much of what we read purports to tell us what the future will bring. Among the most common admonitions is that we should not expect things to ever be the same. Things are never the same, nor should they be. Extreme challenges drive...

 

Monday, April 20, 2020

Now for the hard part. The disruptions in the financial markets have been largely soothed by the extraordinary efforts of the Federal Reserve. Forward-looking market participants are following the adage “don’t fight the Fed...

 

Monday, March 30, 2020

On December 7, 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service destroyed the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. America found itself ill-prepared for the Second World War. Yet, our country rose to the challenge, ultimately...

 

Monday, March 23, 2020

We are not medical experts; we are financial planners. Therefore, we normally limit our observations to areas we know and understand. Unfortunately, people who appear on business channels do not show the same restraint. During the last...

 

Friday, March 13, 2020

Both bull and bear markets are deeply psychological events. During bull markets, fear of missing out leads people to buy on pullbacks. When fear reigns, people often sell on rallies. We have been seeing the latter recently. For most...

 

Monday, March 9, 2020

The further volatility we predicted in our last letter has materialized. Be assured that we are not taking the situation lightly. We do recognize that there will be real and lasting fallout for many. At the same time, there will also...

 

Thursday, February 27, 2020

We are fully aware of the impact that the coronavirus has been having on stock prices. Undoubtedly, the virus will effect travel, energy prices, and global supply chains. This will be a temporary situation. Nevertheless, at today's...

 

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

This shall be the last of my discussions of developing human capital and charitable planning, for a while at least. Once families have developed their charitable mission plans, they will need to determine the best way to make their...

 

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

What happens when the interests of insurance-company lobbyists and politicians converge? The answer is called the Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE). For many years, insurance companies have fretted over...

 

Monday, December 30, 2019

For the first time in many years, Congress has made consequential revisions to the rules governing Qualified Retirement Plans. The Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE) effects many of our clients...

 

Friday, November 15, 2019

We spend a lot of time focused on certain metrics or benchmarks because they are easily measured. Whether we are counting the number of steps we take in a day or our investment performance relative to an arbitrary benchmark, we use...

 

Monday, October 7, 2019

Did you know that how much student debt a person is likely to have varies greatly depending upon which state you live in? According to the Institute for College Access and Success, the highest level is in Connecticut, where the...

 

Friday, September 6, 2019

Perhaps it is wisdom that has allowed me to recognize the fallacy of so many of my youthful beliefs. I truly thought that the economic liberation of the People’s Republic of China, under Deng Xiaoping, foretold a future of...

 

Monday, August 12, 2019

I want to thank all of our clients who responded so well to our water-bottle initiative. Discovering how many of our clients are concerned about the natural beauty of their communities is gratifying. One client alerted us to the...

 

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

My wife and I love to go sailing in the ocean off of Fort Pierce Inlet during the months of May, June, and July. The water turns that magnificent turquoise color that we see on the Chamber-of-Commerce calendar. The seas tend to be low,...

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

If you have ever considered ditching your cable bill, you are not alone. In the first quarter of this year, Comcast lost 121,000 pay-TV subscribers while AT&T lost 544,000 pay-TV customers. That means nearly 700,000 “cut the...

 

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Anyone who attends our public presentations knows how much we value all of the quality information that is free to us as Americans. We are much better off than the citizens of Canada, who struggle with terrible gaps in necessary...

 

Friday, March 8, 2019

Some people view tax day as a cause for regret. We think that tax day is the perfect day to rethink our goals and to prepare for the future. This is the first year under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) and some of the...

 

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

President Trump recently signed an executive order that will review the rules governing retirement plans. Among the issues under consideration is the timing of mandatory distributions from plans. Specifically, the length of time over...

 

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

It’s a question we hear all of the time. From a pure tax standpoint, we’re not sure it ever makes sense to carry a mortgage. Just like the comment frequently brought to us: “My taxes are too high; I need more...

 

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Most retirement planning focuses on the search for the most efficient means to save enough money for something called “retirement.” In other words, retirement planning is planning to quit our jobs. We plan to retire from...

 

Thursday, May 17, 2018

During the tax preparation process, clients often ask us what they can do to lower their tax bill. Unfortunately, as many of you have heard, “April is too late for tax planning.” While we work diligently with clients to...

 

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Having The Talk Recently, we presented to a group of clients our new template for crafting letters of instruction to their heirs. We are gratified by the kind and positive feedback from everybody who attended. While still a work in...

 

Monday, March 26, 2018

After a long period of unusually low volatility, significant price swings in the equity markets have returned. There are many reasons for this, but chief among these are the possibility of a trade war, expected increases in interest...

 

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

In our last newsletter we alerted our clients that there were long-term challenges to the markets due to high prices for stocks and rising interest rates. We have recently seen a degree of volatility unseen for well more than a year....

 

Thursday, January 11, 2018

When is it appropriate to adjust your investment objective? One thing is for sure; it is never when we are emotionally swept up by market exuberance, or conversely, when we are in the grips of widespread panic. Instead, our objectives...

 

Thursday, December 21, 2017

As promised, Congress has passed sweeping tax legislation, and the bill is on its way to the President for signature. We will continue to watch closely but read about some of the key provisions as they currently are written.