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#6. – The 18-month recession that the United States experienced between December 2007 and June 2009 wiped out more than $7 trillion of real estate assets and stock portfolios. At the low point, the collective net worth of Americans fell to $50.4 trillion as of 3/31/09. 10 years later, the balance sheets of Americans have gained +115% from that 2009 bottom to reach a record level of $108.6 trillion as of 3/31/19 (source: Federal Reserve). 1. BETTER THAN AVERAGE – The S&P 500 is up +16.3% YTD (total return) through the close of trading last Friday 6/14/19, the completion of 24 trading weeks of 2019. The index has set 4 all-time record closes...

Luke St. Angelo

17 Jun 2019

What will new stipulations for CFPs mean for fiduciaries?

With all of the ongoing regulation by the SEC and DOL, it’s about time more parties join the ring. As reported recently by InvestmentNews, the CFP board will now be entering the fray. Now that we know that the SEC rule is not going to enforce a fiduciary standard onto brokers, the chief executive of the CFP board has decided that their certification will be picking up the slack. After new rules went into effect for CFP’s, now all those using this designation are obligated to act in the best interest of their clients. This change indicates that there are plenty of parties out there in support of a strict...

Daniel Satchkov

14 Jun 2019

HOW FACEBOOK EXPLOITS YOU & WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR PORTFOLIO

Facebook is a company everyone loves to hate. But few people realize that Facebook’s scandals are almost completely predetermined by the nature of a platform business in a time of essentially free corporate credit. Add to that lax antitrust oversight and we have a recipe for disaster. Yon Perullo, CFA, FRM and Daniel Satchkov, CFA discuss and argue the topic.

Alexandr Starodubtsev

14 Jun 2019

House Passes the SECURE Act

On May 23, 2019, the House of Representatives passed the Secure Act, a bill backed by both Republicans and Democrats that aims to improve the nation’s retirement system. If it passes the Senate, it will be sent to President Trump’s desk. People familiar with the process agree that the bill will be signed by the President. The passage of the bill into the law will show the growing momentum and tremendous support for the retirement legislation. The changes would be the most significant to retirement plans since 2006 when the Pension Protection Act made it easier for companies to automatically enroll their employees in 401(k) plans. The SECURE Act addresses...

Alexandr Starodubtsev

11 Jun 2019

Robo vs. Advisor

In the past few years, robo-advisory platforms gained a lot of traction in the world of financial planning. The first robo-advisory firms were launched in 2008 during the financial crisis with new company Betterment in the vanguard of the new trend. The robo-advisors became a new class of financial advisors who provided financial and investment advice online with little to no human interaction at a very low cost in comparison to traditional financial advice service provided by financial advisers. The allure of low cost and easy to use service became popular among a lot of people, especially among the young crowd who recently started on the career path...