Mike Smith is Consulting Director for PCS Consulting Services Group
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Saturday, January 6 was a glorious day for the city of Seattle. The hometown Seahawks pulled off a remarkable playoff upset of the defending world champion New Orleans Saints. Not even the most devoted Seahawk fans saw this coming. The Saints had just completed another great regular season. The Seahawks limped into the playoffs with
What can American taxpayers expect this year? While the debate intensifies around the need for fiscal restraint and the reduction of the government deficit, recommendations for reforming the U.S. tax code are proliferating. Obama’s appointed Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform proposed a substantial overhaul of the federal tax system on December 1st in “The
Now is a good time to talk to your clients who are sitting on side-lined cash. The graph above helps illustrate what could have happened if they had stayed the course. If they pulled out of the markets and went to all cash at the height of the market in September of 2007, they would
Dividend yield investing is a strategy investors often use to produce retirement income. And one of the reasons for its popularity is probably because it follows the classic wisdom voiced by experts, family, and friends – never invade principal. Since dividend-paying securities offer a regular income stream plus a chance for long-term capital growth, they
For 2011, we’ve identified a central (highest probability) scenario: the square root sign-shaped recovery will likely continue. The dominant characteristic of capital markets in 2010 was the tug-of-war between headline-grabbing risks and the less sensational – but far from trivial – global economic expansion and corporate earnings growth story. At Russell, we think it’s reasonable
2010 was a strong year for U.S. equities as measured by the S&P 500 (up 15%). This was after an exceptionally strong 2009 (up 27%). Unfortunately, as investors are too aware, these years followed 2008 (down 37%). The market news coming out of 2008 and early 2009 was so challenging that few investors anticipated the
If you have clients who aren’t implementing the investment strategies you recommend, consider this: You may not value your own advice to the degree that you should. As you can see from the grid above, if clients aren’t taking your advice, you have two problems. Clients are paying for advice they aren’t taking, which isn’t
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