There might not be many areas with more confounding terminology than that of investing. Even some of the very basic terms and concepts can leave you scratching your head. An example of this: Portfolios are often referred to as ‘growth portfolios’ or ‘income portfolios’. Sometimes, we’ll get really clever and make reference to a ‘growth […]
By Kerry Peabody, CLU, CLTC, Long Term Care Insurance Specialist Say “long term care” and everyone immediately pictures a 94-year-old woman tucked away in a nursing home. It’s that perception that prevents many people from planning for long term care. Nobody wants to envision themselves in a nursing home, so they simply refuse to think […]
“From small things, Mama, big things one day come” – Bruce Springsteen We’re getting close to Thanksgiving as I write this and that conjures the usual nostalgic images of turkey, pies, and family. Where family is involved, there’s almost sure to be an uncle doling out advice, and one frequent such nugget goes like this: […]
One of the first ‘new things’ I encountered in the business came as a result of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. A bill sponsored by senator Bob Roth of Delaware became part of the Act and allowed for non-deductible IRA contributions to be made to a new kind of IRA that would grow completely […]
October 1st is somewhat special here in New England. Summer is officially done, leaves are changing, and some years (but not this one) we even have fall baseball! For those with college students, it’s also the beginning of FAFSA season. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is now available for the 2020-2021 academic year. […]
A lot of estate planning work can be done relatively easily. Joint ownership and proper beneficiary designations can make things a lot easier for loved ones to handle after you die. Proper levels of insurance can make the survivorship needs of your loved ones easy to cover. In fact, for most people, much of their […]
Even though Municipal Bonds are an age-old part of boring fixed-income investing, they are exotic-sounding enough that I think they earn a blog post all their own. What are they? Like with most bonds, Munis are debt instruments. They are issued by (you guessed it) Municipalities, including states, cities, and counties and they are used […]
Over the last few weeks, PFA has been able to celebrate a couple of great strides in professional development. Pardon me while I boast unapologetically. Sam Chaplin, our portfolio administrator successfully passed the Level I exam of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Actually, ‘successfully passed’ is a bit of an understatement: In a year where […]
Two truths seem to hold when it comes to insurance: People like being insured, and People don’t like paying insurance premiums. People often make decisions on managing risk based upon these two factors alone. The trouble with this is that often people end up with too much or too little insurance, or the wrong type […]
