Blogs

Why finding the right Financial Advisor is harder than finding the right Doctor “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong”. –Thomas Sowell Reviewing multiple internet…

While my list is likely incomplete, these are issues we are involved with when working with a business owner anticipating a business exit. 1) Enforce discipline.  Many, many people employ coaches to learn to play the piano, keep them exercising, dieting, or growing their company.  Yet, when it comes to…

When you buy a car, you have some idea of what you want. Coupe, sports car, SUV, compact.  You see all of the different types when you are driving and researching.  It’s said now that 90% of car buyers have all of their research done online before they enter a…

As you prepare for a liquidity event, SBA Link the financial advisor is generally the hub of the wheel.  Like the hub, he or she is not “where the rubber meets the road.”  Rather, they are making the wheel turn and supporting all the spokes meet the road. Who are…

When choosing a financial advisor, the public faces a challenge many are simply unaware they are facing.  There is no standard solution to any investment need! To help people in this process, I have come up with four very simple questions that will give the interviewer a window into understanding…

Tax Preparation usually doesn’t mean tax planning. Preface: My experience is that most tax-preparing CPAs and EAs look backwards, at the previous year’s tax experience.  It takes overt client requests to have them do forward tax planning.  As such, the more advanced financial advisor with a good understanding of the…

There is a cottage industry in the business of forecasting markets. It is meant for entertainment, not for advice. It began with newsletters, then with radio shows, then with televisions shows, even cable networks. Now websites. There are conferences dedicated to the subject. But, In the immortal words, of William…

Bonds or fixed income really have two purposes for the US individual investor: income and stability. Some will disagree with me. They would say that you might want to own bonds for appreciation. However, In order to achieve appreciation, you must have institutional investor scale. In my view this is…

Dave and I began working together in the early 1990s. From day one Dave was geared for growth. Over the years we comfortably doubled, even tripled the value of the IRA he wants to live off of once he retired. Two years are ago, Dave came to me, anticipating retirement…

Portfolio Manager Financial Advisors are inexpensive…maybe. First let’s be absolutely clear about one thing. Aside from simply buying very inexpensive ETFs, with which you get absolutely no advice from a seasoned portfolio manager/financial advisor, we believe we are the least expensive alternative for any client who wants professional help.  Advisors…

Bond Investing When we are selecting bonds for our portfolios, we have a range of factors we evaluate: Our first check is the price. As mentioned above, we will almost always buy bonds at or below their maturity or call price. There are two reasons for this. One is perception,…

Our version of buying bonds for income and stability is best demonstrated using the example of the Required Minimum Distribution. It is broadly known that at now 73—a few years ago it changed from 70 1⁄2 to 73—with very few exceptions investors must begin taking money out of their IRAs.…