In my time as an estate planning attorney I met people of all backgrounds and with various levels of wealth.  One client that I remember well was an older woman who was leaving her son millions of dollars.  She lived a very modest life and you would never guess she had millions of dollars stashed…

Given the experience that I have had working with high wage earners, I have uncovered a less discussed truth: they have a difficult task in order to continue their lifestyle throughout retirement. People that are used to living on above average incomes have several hurdles to overcome.  They usually pay more in taxes, they are…

As much as we hear talk of the “new normal” from prominent investment personalities, we believe that it’s just another version of that fateful proclamation heard just before the tech bubble burst in the late 90s – “it’s different this time”.  The fact of the matter is that the same fundamental principles that have governed…

What is phishing?  Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be a legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that could be used for identity theft. According to the Federal Trade Commission, phishers send e-mails or pop-up messages that claim to be…

I hope you had a chance to read Laura’s blog post last week about the lack of information available for prospective college students about the long term financial consequences of student loans.  I thought it was an excellent post and have asked my college sophomore and high school junior to read it.  I have been…

In a recent blog post that I wrote just a few weeks ago I drew attention to the fact that many investor predictions for 2014 played out in the market in unexpected ways, not least of which was another strong year for the S&P 500 Index. Large cap U.S. stocks turned in double-digit gains last…

$1,200,000,000,000. That’s a lot of zeros. That’s also our country’s nationwide student loan debt. Student loan debt has recently passed both auto loans and credit card debt, but this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Recent college graduates, much like myself, didn’t have many options when graduating high school and entering college in the…

Have you thought about how your family might treat each other when you’re gone?  It’s not a fun topic to consider, but a necessary one.  They may get along great now, but I speak from experience that when it comes to dividing up your stuff after you are gone, all bets are off.  This is…

Now that the holidays are behind us, we find ourselves entering a new season:  it’s the time of year for annual market and economic forecasts.  Economists, financial analysts, and investment managers alike use the turn of the year to take stock of where we’ve been and make our best guesses as to what may be…

Both are highly trained and skilled. Both work within some form of established guidelines. For the investment manager it’s an investment policy. For the chef it’s a recipe. Both allow for creativity and flexibility, but ensure discipline and consistency in the process. Both know the value of quality ingredients and the difference they make in…