Are you ready to bring a fee-only financial advisor into your life to help you map out a financial plan for your future? Hiring a certified financial planner is an incredibly personal decision and should not be taken lightly. Use these five questions as a guide while you consider if a prospective fee-only certified financial planner is the right choice for you.
Whether it’s sudden and unexpected or after an already lengthy ordeal, there’s nothing that can prepare you for losing your spouse. Grief and mourning affect each of us uniquely, but all widows and widowers share a painful dilemma: On the one hand, the world seems to demand rapid response to a barrage of critical questions – financial and otherwise. On the other hand, it’s usually a terrible time to be making big decisions.
I’ve been in the investment advisory and financial planning field for over 30 years. I’ve been inundated with market prognostications and soothsayers that offer up specific roadmaps for stocks. None have been consistently right. That said, we'll rely on simple math to guide us as we enter 2018. The S&P 500 Index advanced 21.83% in 2017. That figure includes reinvested dividends. No question about it, 2017 offered rich rewards to those who invested in a well-diversified portfolio.
We interrupt your busy holiday season with a reach-out on this week’s U.S. tax code overhaul. While the ink still dries on this sweeping new legislation, you may be wondering whether there are ways you can or should spring into action immediately, before year-end, to reposition yourself for the new law of the land. As always with tax planning, there are a ton of caveats, catches, and exceptions to these rules of thumb. If you are thinking of taking action before year-end, we hope you’ll be in touch, so we can discuss the details with you.