No Bluff: Try This Tax Calculator
In the cinema of my mind, the fiscal cliff appears as a buffalo jump, where panic-stricken bison were stampeded to their deaths. A traditional Northern Plains buffalo jump was...
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How Does That $250,000 Threshold Work?
As with anything related to the federal income tax code, things are much more complicated than they seem. In this article, a programmer and analyst at the Tax Foundation...
VA sales likely to end 2012 down 8%: Morningstar
But Prudential, Jackson National, TIAA-CREF, Lincoln Financial, SunAmerica/VALIC, and AXA Equitable all sold slightly more VAs in the first three quarters of 2012 than in the same period in...
When rates rise, will bond fund owners bolt?
History shows that intermediate-term bond funds are likely to see less flight than junk bond funds, a Schwab executive writes in the Journal of Financial Planning.
Easy Does It
“We will want to be sure that the recovery is established before we begin to normalize policy,” Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech yesterday.
Fund flows favor bonds again in October: Morningstar
Vanguard remained the largest fund family. Its funds netted $81 billion so far this year and grew to $1.53 trillion for a market share of almost 17%. PIMCO led...
The Bogle Perspective
Jack Bogle commented on investment fees, climate change and gun control at the NAPFA East conference two weeks ago. Jim Otar and Rick Miller presented evidence that, in my...
Experts with Unrealistic Expectations
“We urge you to work together to reach a bipartisan agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff and take concrete steps to restore the United States’ long-term fiscal footing,” the...
A Man Without a Plan
Obama’s chief economic adviser is Gene Sperling, head of the National Economic Council. Unlike the typical academic economist, Sperling concentrates on practical things that might lift the economy, writes...
Sampling the Breakfast Buffett at NAPFA
At the 2012 NAPFA East conference in Baltimore this week, Warren Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder identified the next big growth industries. Attendees seemed to need some post-election tonic.
Fees will soon rise on several VA contracts: Morningstar
The carriers who recently limited additional investment dollars into existing variable annuity contracts and benefits include Allianz, AXA, MetLife, John Hancock, Prudential and Transamerica, Morningstar said.
Can 401(k) Plan Balances Predict the Presidential Race?
The data shows that wealthier states tend to give their electoral votes to Democrats, but wealthy individuals tend to vote Republican. A paradox? Perhaps not. (Left: Bo Lu, CEO...
Suppressed Report Discredits “Supply-Side” Economics
"The reduction in the top tax rates have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth," said a September 14 report that was posted on the Congressional Research...
Too Big to Handle
"Every time the CEO of is forced to resign, the evidence mounts that these organizations have become impossible to manage in a responsible way that generates sustainable...
The Fed’s Exit Strategy
William C. Dudley, president of the New York Fed, spoke at the Oct. 15 meeting of the National Association for Business Economics in Manhattan. In this excerpt from his...
The SmartNest Back-Story
SmartNest, the software behind DFA’s new managed account program, was valued at $1.1 million when Trinsum Group, its previous owner, failed in 2009. Last summer, DFA insider Michael Lane,...
Cold Turkey for Thanksgiving? No Thanks.
Let me channel, for a few paragraphs, the ideas of Warren Mosler, Stephanie Kelton and other proponents of Modern Monetary Theory—which is not a theory so much as a...
Decumulation expert Wade Pfau to teach at The American College
Wade Pfau (at left), the award-winning Princeton-educated retirement income analyst who has been curriculum chief for RIIA's RMA designation, will relocate from Japan to teach at The American College,...
Paint It Black
Investment gurus at the recent Big Picture Conference—the annual financial opinion-fest in New York created by market-maven Barry Ritholtz—took an almost unanimously bleak view of the future of our...
The Changing American Family
The 2010 Census revealed that married couples are, for the first time, less than half of U.S. households, according to this article, which appeared recently in the MetLife Mature...
