By James B. Twining, CFP® and Tor Benson, CFP® The decision to make a Roth conversion can be extremely impactful, warranting thorough, professional analysis with consideration of all pertinent factors. If current and future assumed tax rates are equal, a Roth conversion is often assumed to be neither beneficial nor detrimental. Appendix A illustrates a […]
The SECURE ACT 2.0: Three Good features
On December 29th, 2022, the SECURE 2.0 ACT was signed into law. It includes a few provisions that are beneficial for taxpayers. I have outlined three of them here: New IRA Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Age The act raises the age at which RMDs are required to age 73 (previously 72). For taxpayers who were […]
How Inflation Affects Asset Values
In 1980, the inflation rate peaked at 13.5%; higher than it had been in 60 years. The miserable economic conditions of 1980 caused by inflation are lodged into the collective American memory, and we have heard admonitions ever since that excessive money printing would result in the return of hyper- inflation. Those warnings turned out […]
Advice Regarding the Washington State Long Term Care Law
The latest tax news from Washington State includes a long- term care tax on W2 income. For details, please refer to our Financial Plan, Inc. blog post authored by our own Justin Gross, CFP® entitled What to Know and How to Plan for Washington State’s LTSS Trust Act. While the aforementioned article lays out the […]
Should I Manage My Own Investment Portfolio? | The Abysmal Record of DIY Investor Cash Flows
If 2020 taught personal investors anything, it’s that managing your own investment portfolio is a dangerous game. The typical DIY-investor relies upon news cycles, hunches, and emotion when deciding whether to be in or out of the market. The only thing predictable about this strategy is disappointment. 2020 was a volatile year, making it very […]
What is the new ETF rule?
Every so often, something occurs that changes the way we invest, and we think it best to keep our clients informed regarding these changes. This year, one such change occurred: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted the ETF Rule, which allows Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) to exchange securities within their portfolios for different securities […]
The ETF Rule and Custom Baskets
At Financial Plan, we are analytical to a fault when evaluating investments. We continually ask the question: “Are we populating our accounts with optimal securities, or are there other selections that are clearly better?” We might define “better” as wholly subscribing to our investment philosophy while demonstrating improvement to the items we can control; including […]
Stock Market Performance: A Case for Diversified Portfolios
If you have been paying attention, you know how much we believe in equity markets. Our clients who have a long enough time horizon and the risk tolerance to endure bear markets are invested, at least to some degree, in massively diversified portfolios of stocks. A reason we recommend portfolio diversification is because most individual […]
Getting to the Point of a Point
Recently, I ran across this article from Dimensional Fund Advisors. It contains insight into the difference between a price-weighted index like the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), and a cap-weighted index like the S&P 500. It puts into perspective the large swings in the DJIA, and highlights the limitations when comparing a portfolio to an […]
Let the Dogs Bark
The term “expected return” is in wide use among financial planners. To the layman it carries misleading connotations: most assume that it carries with it a high degree of confidence. After all, we are “expecting” a certain rate of return, aren’t we? Actually…no. Let’s explain: The expected return is a measure of the center of […]