How Many Pages Of Regulations Does It Take To Create A Loophole?

How Many Pages Of Regulations Does It Take To Create A Loophole?

I’ll start with the answer: 771 pages. That’s the size of the new “Regulation Best Interest: The Broker-Dealer Standard of Conduct” rule just approved by the SEC. Why did the SEC feel we needed this legislation? It’s a long story. After the 1929 collapse of the U.S. stock market and the subsequent Great Depression of…
Read more

How Not To Compare An Annuity To A Bond

My elderly uncle is convinced that annuities are better than bonds because the annuity will not only pay more on a monthly basis than a similar bond investment but would also keep paying over the remainder of his lifetime. While that’s true, it doesn’t tell the whole story. I’m writing this article to share a…
Read more

The Ramifications of Regret

How many times have you taken some action only to regret it afterwards? In the world of financial decision-making this happens all the time. Sometimes it’s regretting the purchase of some investment whose value subsequently drops. Possibly it’s regretting not having purchased some investment which your neighbor has been bragging about having made a killing…
Read more

Three Consequences of Extended Longevity

My 80-year old uncle used to laugh off warnings from family members about taking better care of himself. “After all,” he’d joke, “I can’t die young.” He ultimately passed away at age 85 from cancer but I’m sure would not have regretted the quality of the long life that he’d enjoyed. Excepting perhaps those of…
Read more

Why Would You Want to Beat the Market?

I attended a large foundation’s investment committee meeting the other day to learn about their investment strategy. One of the managers they utilize for large cap U.S. stock investments was there to talk about their methodology for achieving better returns over time than standard market benchmarks such as the S&P 500. In brief, they explained…
Read more

Should You Invest in IPOs?

Since the beginning of this year we’ve seen a number of spectacular first-day gains among Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Lyft rose 21% before closing with a gain of 9%. Pinterest soared 25% but was overshadowed by Levi Strauss’ 31% advance. And even those impressive returns pale in comparison to Zoom, which – true to its…
Read more