You may be familiar with the term “LIBOR.” It stands for the London Interbank Offering Rate, and had been used for decades by banks worldwide for interbank short-term lending and more popularly as the base rate in the U.S. for calculating the interest on a variety of personal loans. Well, it’s gone. As of July…
Read more

Harry Markowitz died last month. You probably didn’t hear about it in the traditional media sources. They tend to limit their obituaries to entertainment and sports stars, politicians, and other well-known personalities. Yet I contend that Markowitz has had a much greater impact on your life than practically any of those others. Markowitz was the…
Read more

Last year the city of Oakland launched a program called Resilient Families to provide 600 low-income families with $500 a month for 18 months without any limitations on how the money can be spent. The funding came from donations from a philanthropic partnership (Blue Meridian Partners) and the program is run by a non-profit (UpTogether).…
Read more

Early in my financial planner career I worked for a firm with a 75-year old client who had become a recent widow. A phone scammer had gotten hold of her and was persuasive enough to convince her to send a hundred dollars in gift cards to an address in the Caribbean. That one indiscretion resulted…
Read more

It seems that during good times or bad there will always be financial advisors who violate the trust their clients place in them. Although the miscreants below actually represent only a tiny fraction of the many reputable and trustworthy CFPs out there, I am sharing their stories in the hope that it will make you…
Read more