New Adjustable Pension Plan Looks Promising

New Adjustable Pension Plan Looks Promising

One of the problems many employees have faced over the last decade is the rapid disappearance of the traditional company pension plan – also known as a defined benefit (DB) plan – in favor of defined contribution (DC) plans. With DB plans, the investment risk is completely borne by the company, while the opposite is…
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Sudden Wealth – Blessing or Curse?

Now that the Powerball lottery has arrived in California, I thought it would be good to talk about the impact of unexpected or sudden wealth on one’s life.  We’ve all probably dreamed at one time or another about how fantastic our lives would become if we could only win the lottery.  I’ve no doubt there…
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A New Metric to Aid Mutual Fund Selection

One of the most widely debated investment approaches among financial planners involves active versus passive management, especially when investing in stocks.  Indeed, this debate has taken on many of the attributes of a holy war.  Those supporting passive investing argue that the odds of any individual investor putting together a portfolio that can consistently beat…
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Buying a Mutual Fund? Which Class is Right for You?

If you’re like many investors, you like the diversification and perhaps the active management that many mutual funds offer. And there are lots of resources available for you to identify, compare, and choose funds in which to invest. Let’s say you’ve decided to put some of your money into the Pimco Total Return Bond fund.…
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Should You Avoid Bonds in Today’s Environment?

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, recently warned investors that in the event of rising interest rates, “outstanding bonds, particularly those with a low interest rate and high duration may experience significant price drops.” Why are bonds facing this risk today and what should investors do as a result? As I wrote last year, we…
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Another Hedge Fund Collapses Through Fraud

The San Jose Mercury News reported this week that a federal judge sentenced the manager of the Sunnyvale-based Asenqua Beta Fund and the Fireside LS Fund to 12 years in prison for defrauding local investors out of at least $6.5 million. Albert Ke-Jung Hu was found guilty in June of luring wealthy investors to his…
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