Client Communications

Often times you will hear us state that we make recommendations within the context of your financial plan and comfort level.  It is a basic tenet of our overall philosophy because, quite simply, achieving your goals and placing your interests first matters the most to us.  However, this is not new to our firm, but […]

The recent decision by the people of the U.K. to back out of the European Union is historic, only in that they are the first to leave the relatively young collaboration of countries.  What makes it similar to other events in history is that a group of people are choosing to separate from a larger […]

Market pundits, financial news stations, and even major brokerage firms seem to be trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy by continuing to warn of a coming financial Armageddon.  For nearly the past year we have been pounded continuously about the coming crash as a result of (take your pick):  The Presidential race, banking crisis, recession, […]

When markets decline or rise in a spectacular fashion, we attempt to try to figure out if there is a way we should have anticipated or seen this and if there is, what action could we have taken. Can the way the markets move at any point in time actually tell us anything? In a […]

Santa decided to skip the much anticipated year end “Santa Rally” in the stock market. As usual, markets rarely give what is expected. The volatility in December was unprecedented in that 21 of the 23 trading days saw the Dow Industrials move more than 100 points either up or down. Right out of the gates, […]

Most investors would have to agree that staying with a long term, logic-driven investment plan during periods of high volatility is not easy. As recently as 2009 while the markets continued their free fall, those investors that could not take the stress any longer threw in the towel and sold out. Almost immediately, as the […]

It has been quite some time since we have experienced as volatile a week as we have in the one just passed. For the past twelve months it looked as though the markets were in an “internal” correction. While the major market indexes were remaining within a couple of percentage points from their all-time highs, […]

We have reached the halfway point for 2015, and if you look at the indexes, most are about where they were at the beginning of the year. Dow +1.6%, S & P 500 +3%, Transportation Index -7%, Utilities -8%, and Corporate Bonds -1%. Bucking the trend is the Smallcap Index +6.5%, the Nasdaq sector +9%, […]

The volatility in the equity markets continues to be present as we alluded to in our February Comment. What is interesting is that this year to date, the leading sectors have flip-flopped from those of the last quarter of 2014. Small and Mid Cap firms are beating the Large Cap stocks at this writing about […]

As tax season quickly approaches, the scramble begins to organize the reams of paper and forms it takes to prepare a return. Add to that frustration the news coming from the IRS that due to budget cuts, their service will be very poor this year and refunds will be delayed, and you get the feeling […]