Flash Boys and Flashy Headlines By now, most of you are familiar with Michael Lewis’s new book, “Flash Boys” and the whole high-frequency trading (HFT) phenomenon he’s focused on. Lewis has been making the rounds starting with 60 Minutes a week ago Sunday, followed by…
By now, most of you are familiar with Michael Lewis’s new book, “Flash Boys” and the whole high-frequency trading (HFT) phenomenon he’s focused on. Lewis has been making the rounds starting with a segment on 60 Minutes a week ago Sunday, followed by the Today…
An Untimely Death Offers Estate Planning Lessons Philip Seymour Hoffman’s untimely death on February 2nd ended a great film career and we mourn for both the man and the future film-going pleasure we will all now be denied. As is so often the case when…
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s untimely death on February 2 ended a great film career and we mourn for both the man and the future film-going pleasure we will all now be denied. As is so often the case when a public figure passes away, Hoffman’s will…
Our San Francisco financial planning team (Elissa, Dave, Jennifer, and Jen) attended a Financial Planning Association of San Francisco meeting on Tuesday that featured Gary Schlossburg, Senior Economist for Wells Capital Management, presenting on the outlook for the U.S. economy and financial markets into 2015. We thought…
The government has now been “shut down” for 11 days and we face the further threat of a default if Congress fails to raise the U.S. debt limit within a week. While the former is painful, ever more so the longer it lasts, the latter would be truly…
This is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that President Obama signed into law on March 23, 2010, also dubbed ‘Obamacare’. The fact that these health insurance marketplaces are government-sponsored does not mean the government will itself be issuing insurance as some…
Who? Participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans [401(k), 403(b), 457(b), profit-sharing plans] and/or IRA owners ([traditional, rollover, SEP, SIMPLE]. What? This is the minimum amount you are required to withdraw from your account each year. When? Distributions must start by April 1 of the year…
What Happened? On June 26th, in United States v Windsor, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional ab initio (from the start). The court decided that if the citizens of a state voted to recognize…