The Department of Labor (DOL) sent the final version of its fiduciary rule to the White House last week, which suggests it may take effect soon. Lawyers studying the rule think it won't differ much from the proposed version. Word is the DOL is moving fast to make sure that Congress or a new president can't easily undo the rule.

Attached 2024 Tax Contribution Guide. We realize lots of firms/mutual fund companies do these, but we like to do one every year. So here it is . . . 

No real excitement here: IRAs ($7K from $6.5K), 401Ks ($23,000 from $22,500) and gifting ($18K from $17K per person) as well as other retirement/estate numbers that ticked up a bit with inflation.

 

Industry thought leader Michael Kitces had me on his latest podcast. I was both honored and humbled, though jokingly asked him if he had run out of guest options. He declined to answer.

 

Given the debt ceiling drama going on, I thought it appropriate to address the situation as many subscribers have asked for my thoughts.

The following email comes from Nicolas Valdes-Fauli, one of our advisors at Main Street Financial Solutions (and former student) who sent it out to his clients last Friday.

 

 

Today’s video discusses “The Greatest Chart Ever” revealing the yearly INTRAyear volatility as well the annual growth of the S&P 500 each year from 1980-2022 including dividends.  We also discuss managing equity return expectations with clients going into 2023.

This video discusses “sweep accounts” and how advisors need to be cognizant of the rates being earned on excess cash in client portfolios in an increasing interest rate environment.   The “sweep accounts” at most firms usually give a very low interest rate compared to even money market funds or short term CDs.

Recorded this a while ago for my Video Insights subscribers, but thought it wouldn't hurt to make it available to all.

 

 

 

It was an honor to speak with Reese Harper on his podcast.

"You know the pandemic was disruptive—it altered every one of our lives. But when you saw (or read) about kids and their classroom struggles, you probably didn’t put much thought to how financial planning training and education was also being affected.

Just some attachments and thoughts about world events and volatility.

One attachment is from The Hartford and walks through negative media headlines over the past 50 years (PDF) and the second shows headlines and returns from 1970-present.

This video discusses "The Greatest Chart EVER" revealing the yearly INTRAyear volatility as well the annual growth of the S&P 500 each year from 1980-2021 including dividends. We also discuss managing equity return expectations with clients going into 2022. There is a link to download a PDF of the chart below.

 

Comments (1)

  • anon
    ssaule72

    Dear Brett! Thank you for the nice overview of INTRA volatility. I really enjoyed listening to the call.

    Feb 16, 2022