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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
I was at a family wedding this summer and overheard a conversation between two relatives who happen to be in the nursing field. One was starting her career after graduating from college, and expressed the interest to take a job in public service because she wanted to become eligible for…
This week’s PFA Ponderings was written by guest blogger Magdalena Johndrow, MSc, CFS®, a Financial Advisor with Johndrow Wealth Management. The original blog publication can be found HERE. Summer is finally here! This means campfires, beach days, and vacation travel. But this also means higher gas prices, costly summer camps,…
If you do a Google search for “Questions to ask a financial advisor”, you’re likely to find a lot of repetition. How do you get paid? Are you a fiduciary? What designations do you have? What is your investment philosophy? These questions seem to be ubiquitous across nearly all articles…
I’ve never been a big fan of ‘Rules of Thumb’. They inevitably cause angst for people who have no need to be anxious, or they provide a false sense of security to people who SHOULD be worried. I’ve tried to research the etymology of the phrase ‘Rule of Thumb’ and…
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