Expert’s Corner: Preparing for Tax Season
Another year comes to an end and investors as well as their advisers will begin the arduous task of preparing to file tax returns for 2003. What are the common areas of that will trip up taxpayers?
The Real Cost of Spending
This article I wrote for T. Rowe Price shows that investors need to look at today’s expenditures not just in absolute terms, but also in terms of their potential future value. A family car for $380,000 anyone?
Looking Under the SMA Hood
Adding and dropping money managers in a managed account program is both science and art. Here’s some insight into the process.
The Real Return on Real Estate
Leverage, sheltering of income and tax avoidance make calculating the real return on real estate tricky. This article, written for and published by Interbay Funding, a mortgage lender, does a deep dive on the nuances of calculating the real return on real estate.
Failing to Communicate Can Get a Manager Fired
When a manager gets knocked off one managed account program, does this mean that all the dominoes are about to fall? Yes, but they probably would have anyway.
Sex, Lies and Financial Planning
When clients divorce, what’s a financial planner to do? As they say in a mindfield, step very, very carefully.
Handpicked: Separately Managed Accounts Can Offer Advantages Over Mutual Funds, but Watch Those Fees
As the popularity of mutual funds waned in response to a variety of factors, most notably perhaps the end of a product life cycle, Separately Managed Accounts caught fire. Spurred on by rapidly lowering investment minimums, assets in SMAs were closing in on $500 billion as 2003 came to a close. Barron’s took my advice to cover this emerging trend and hired me to write a primer on SMAs.
A Who’s Who of Independent Research
In the wake of the “global settlement” — the April 2003 agreement among 10 investment banking firms and the Securities and Exchange Commission — brokers, advisors and investors soon will find lots more independent research reports on their desks.
Early Harvest Bountiful for Investors
In the early summber of 2003, investors were seeing something they hadn’t for a very long time: stock market gains. Changes in the tax laws regarding capital gains, and a desire not to repeat the past leads to that most uncommon of Wall Street cries: Se
Wealth Management at FirstMerit
First Merit Financial reconfigures itself to offer a wealth management solution