Posted on September 8, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Over the last few months, we have been revising our approach to investing in bonds from index bond funds, and moving toward Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and individual bonds in order to reduce the cost of holding fixed income securities. We have approached this in two ways depending on the size of the portfolio and the bond allocation. The first is to buy ETFs such as iShares and Guggenheim Funds that hold municipal and corporate bonds to maturity and second, is to buy individual bond ladders and hold them to maturity. In an environment where interest rates can only go up, the advantage of this approach is to preserve the value of the bond holdings. (more…)
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Tags: Bonds
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 9:57 pm
The recent sell-off in stocks and commodities was not a direct result of the standoff in Congress over the debt ceiling or the U.S. downgrade; but a loss of investor confidence over the ineffectiveness the U.S. and the European Union have shown in resolving their fiscal problems.
I do not see this as a 2008 market crash because the correction is not based on economic fundamentals, but pure emotion, made worse by a breathless media that amplifies the mood of the moment. Because of this emotion, people tend to buy when prices are going up, and rush for the exits when prices go down. (more…)
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Posted on August 23, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Gabe was interviewed by KOIN TV on August 9th to discuss his views on the current market volatility and how investors should remain calm during the storm. Russ was quoted in a article by SmartMoney.com about bond investing which can be seen
here.
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Posted on August 23, 2011 at 9:54 pm
Following is a story from a fellow NAPFA member who offered to share her experience and how important it is to plan for unexpected end-of-life decisions.
“I have recently been through an experience of assisting a family member through her pre-death planning decisions and was encouraged by another planner-friend to share my experience with NAPFA friends.
I had helped my aunt through end-of-life issues, and one task was for my Aunt to obtain a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order from her family doctor, in accordance with her wishes. She was suffering from severe painful medical conditions, had lost her husband to death 18 months prior, had no children, and with no real quality of life, had no desire to go on in this world. The order was obtained and hung in my aunt’s new assisted living studio apartment. Subsequently, my Aunt was traveling to her old condo on an occasion to retrieve some items, when she sat down on a stool, and and succumbed to death. A friend who accompanied Aunt called 911, and the ambulance came. Finding no DNR order at the condo, where she had a strong desire to die, emergency medical staff resuscitated her, and took her poor frail body to the hospital and put her on life support machines.
Lesson for planners: make sure your clients with DNRs have more than one copy if they have multiple homes or maybe even suggest they carry a copy in a purse or wallet. I was able to convince the ER docs of my aunt’s true wishes, and eventually they let her go. I met resistance, but was aided by the fact that she had been without oxygen for a period of time before the ambulance arrived, and that they felt she was brain-dead. I don’t think I would have been successful if this hadn’t been the case.”
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