Recently, a Reuters article quoted Warren Buffet that most investors, “should stick with low-cost index funds.” He reasons that index funds routinely outperform actively managed funds, and especially when adding in the high fees of Wall Street investment firms.1 If you are paying higher fees for active management and not outperforming the index over full market cycles, then he has a valid point.
In 2014, I wrote an article on how to freeze your credit union reports as a way to protect not only your credit, but your privacy. Placing a security freeze at the three credit reporting companies—Equifax, TransUnion and Experian—prevents any person or organization, including lenders, from accessing your credit information.
The federal estate tax is a tax on property (cash, real estate, stock, or other assets) transferred from deceased persons to their heirs.
When it comes to simplifying your financial life, we are all about consolidation and aggregation. However, when it comes to required minimum distributions (RMDs), sometimes separate is better.
Social Security has evolved over time to cover more of the population and to represent different things to its beneficiaries. The Social Security Act of 1935 established the program’s basic structure, a function of two goals; social adequacy and individual equity.
As defined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “diminished financial capacity” is a legal term used to describe the decline in a person’s ability to manage money and financial assets to serve their best interests, including the inability to understand the consequences of investment decisions. Financial capacity is one of the first abilities to decline with cognitive impairment. It incorporates core skills such as conducting cash transactions, understanding debt and loans, paying bills and maintaining sound judgement to avoid financial exploitation. Although diminished financial
While equity markets have rallied since the surprise Trump victory, a rout in bond markets has been equally significant. The horror, according to bond market prognosticators, is an abrupt change in the consensus view that we are in a “lower for longer” yield environment. A Trump administration, including a Republican controlled Senate and House, are more likely to pass tax reforms and fiscal stimulus. Coupled with near full employment, these measures are likely to spur inflation as well as economic growth, though the magnitude of each will be dependent on the details of the policy changes.
Th
At West Financial Services, protecting your personal information is of paramount concern for us. We have a dedicated Information Security department that has the resources and expertise to safeguard your financial data. Understandably, that level of security is not likely available to you at home, but there are steps you can take to better protect your personal information. Installing and maintaining the right anti-virus software to monitor your system, avoiding phishing emails, and selecting strong passwords are some of the ways to build better data protection for yourself.
What is anti
Letter scams are not as common as email and phone call scams. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) prepares an annual "Dirty Dozen" list of tax scams which is topped by identity theft, but with phone scams and internet phishing schemes high on the list.
