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In times of market volatility, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the wild prognostications of pundits and so-called experts. Then again, it can be easy to get wrapped up in their prognostications when markets aren’t volatile. But the fact of the matter is that those predictions rarely come true, and even the ones that do come true usually don’t last very long.

Dear clients and friends,

Now that the SECURE Act has been passed into law, we felt it important to revisit the key provisions of the new legislation. We shared some initial thoughts in our August newsletter, so some of this may be familiar.

Changes impacting businesses

Aside from “fiduciary,” the financial industry’s buzzword of the moment is “ESG investing.” I’ve seen TV ads, read newspaper articles, and listened to interviews with ESG investors. But what is ESG? Earning Super Growth? Endive Salad Greens? 

As regular readers know, we typically release our quarterly newsletter toward the end of earnings season. We do this because we believe corporate earnings to be the most important “pillar of support” for equity valuations, and the commentary provided by company leadership gives us an idea of where the market may be headed and where opportunities may lie.

What a quarter. What a year, for that matter. This is probably the worst market behavior I’ve seen in my (admittedly short) career. Every time some good news emerges, the market tries to stage a halfhearted rally before resuming its drop.

If you’re human you couldn’t possibly have avoided thoughts of what you might do if you had won the recent Mega Millions lottery of over $1.537 billion ($878 million cash).

We usually like to respond to major market events by sharing a brief summary written in our own words. This time we’ve decided to do something a little different. Michael Gibbs, one of our favorite strategists with Raymond James, has released a short video explaining his position regarding the recent market volatility and what he expects going forward.

If you’ve always dreamed of living abroad, now may be the best time. Today, there are around 400,000 American retirees residing outside the United States, with that number expected to grow over the next few years. Cost of living is often cited as one of the main reasons for the move.

For my birthday this year, my poor, poor wife agreed to accompany me to Bristol, TN for a NASCAR race. The town of Bristol, which actually straddles the border of Virginia and Tennessee, is home the third largest sporting venue in the United States: Bristol Motor Speedway.

People spend a lifetime accumulating assets and building an estate with the intention of passing it on to their heirs or charitable beneficiaries. Without proper planning, a person’s death can create significant hardships on the people for which the estate was created.