The S&P 500 Index finished the week with a close over 2,600, a new high. The 10-Year Treasury Note yield held steady at 2.33% while the yield on the 2-Year continued to edge higher and closed the week yielding 1.75%. The current economic numbers continued to display the U.S growth cycle trudging higher. Get ready […]
Read MoreMonth: November 2017
Federal Estate Taxes
Dear Trust Officer: What is going to happen with federal estate taxes in 2018? —Interested Observer Dear Interested Observer: The IRS has announced that, under current law, the inflation-adjusted exemption from federal estate and gift tax will grow to $5.6 million in 2018. For a married couple, that means a total estate of $11.2 million […]
Read MoreLow Volatility
The lack of volatility is again being discussed as a sign of the end of the bull market. Low volatility by itself is not a danger to markets. Markets become dangerous when low volatility causes investors to become complacent. Long periods of low volatility can lull investors into becoming comfortable with typically risky assets to […]
Read MoreThe Enemies of Investors
Tax policy, interest rates, trade policies, regulatory reform, job growth, consumer spending and finance, technological transformation, and political dysfunction are potentially disruptive. Investors must continuously monitor these and other changing external variables and make corresponding adjustments to their models for the economy and securities markets. These changing variables are part of life, but change is […]
Read MoreThe Framework for Tax Reform
On September 27 President Trump released a nine-page “framework” for new tax legislation. The framework adds some detail to the one-page outlines that had been released earlier by the administration. The new target for the corporate tax is 20% instead of 15%. The “border-adjustable tax” is history. Pass-through entities (used by most small business owners) […]
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