PFA Ponderings

Tis the season – when charitable gifting moves to the front of our minds.  It’s not just that the spirit of giving is more palpable during the holiday season… At this time of year, plenty of reminders arrive in the mailbox each day; worthy causes and organizations are looking for…

Individual Retirement Accounts are great for one major reason… taxes are deferred until distributions are taken, sometimes on contributions and always on growth. Deferral of taxation can be helpful in two ways:  First off, taxes aren’t coming out of the account to pay for regular growth, dividends and interest, so…

As the ‘wealth management’ industry moves from the old ‘stock broker’ model to the fee-based Registered Investment Advisor structure, one question seems to be a little less straight-forward:  “Where is my money held?” In the ‘good old days’, the answer was pretty simple:  “My broker works for E.F. Hutton” implies:…

There’s plenty of conventional wisdom out there (and Google search results) surrounding the question of “When is it time to work with a Financial Planner?” This week, we’ll touch briefly on the ‘usuals’.  These are the things that any newspaper, magazine or uncle tackling the question will tend to provide…

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…

“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…

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…