Posts by webteam

Let’s talk a little about famous last words. On Nov. 8, 2007, then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers that the U.S. economy did not appear headed for recession. One month later, the Great Recession of the 21st century began.1 So, on Sept. 6 of this year, when Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced that he…

The investment world is like the weather: constantly changing. Financial vehicles are tweaked and improved upon, particularly when there are changes to tax law or compliance rules. The world of finance is fluid, and so are we. As our lives evolve, it’s important to review and sometimes make adjustments to our investment and insurance goals…

Drug manufacturers and distributors have been in the news lately. Here’s a roundup of some of the biggest headlines: The Opioid Crisis In October of this year, three of the biggest U.S. drug distributors and a drug manufacturer reached a $260 million settlement with two counties in Ohio that had sued them over the opioid…

According to the United Nations, across the globe, people older than 65 now outnumber children under five for the first time in history. In 1960, the average woman gave birth to five children in her lifetime; by 2017, that ratio had dropped to 2.4 children per woman. Meanwhile, our life expectancy has increased around the…

Now that we’re in the fourth quarter, it’s time to think about what you can do to help minimize your liabilities for the 2019 tax season and position finances for next year. The following is a sample of the usual methods. However, if you’d like us to take a more personalized, comprehensive approach, we’d be…

Some hard-working, taxpaying Americans get angry when they hear Social Security called an entitlement program, perhaps because the word “entitlement” has come to have a connotation with welfare programs. The reality is that Social Security is, by definition, an entitlement program, along with Medicare, unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation. These mandatory programs are funded by…

The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania has conducted extensive studies on the effects of immigration on America’s economy. In light of heightened policy debates in the U.S., some of the most critical findings are:1 Increasing the number of legal immigrants with a college degree would have little impact on employment and…

Index mutual funds are investment vehicles comprising stocks from a wide variety of companies and track the performance of a specific index, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Investors are able to spread their assets across many different investments with the convenience of one fund, which can help protect them from market volatility. Index…

Nearly a quarter of the adult U.S. population is “underbanked.” This means they don’t regularly use a bank (or a bank’s mobile/online capabilities) to deposit checks and pay bills. That’s about 55 million people ostensibly living from cashed paycheck to cashed paycheck.1 When these underbanked people cash their paychecks for immediate funds to buy groceries…

While the causes of climate change may be for up for debate, its impact on our economy and potential adjustments to business models are not. For example, rampant coastal flooding in South Florida has prompted at least one research institute to predict insurers will stop offering homeowners policies in the region. As a result, the…