WJ in Print

How Changes to Long Term Care Insurance Affect You

As Seen in the Fort Bend Focus

Medical advances have allowed us to live longer and achieve a higher quality of life than was ever anticipated by our forebears. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does mean that assumptions about life expectancy and other factors made by long-term care insurance companies are falling short of the current reality.

Insurance companies are struggling with profitability, which is leading to major changes in the industry. Overall, premiums for long-term care...

When should I Start Social Security?

As seen in the Fort Bend Independent

When should I start Social Security? This is a question financial advisors face many times a year. An individual can begin receiving Social Security as early as age 62 or as late as age 70. The longer you wait, the more you will receive. As you would expect with any government program, the methodology to determine benefits is complicated. Consequently, the decision as to when you should start receiving benefits is not an easy one.

The answer to the...

Investing and Time Horizon

As seen in the Fort Bend Independent

The last decade was difficult for most investors. Hopefully, you’ve remained diversified and limited losses. Even if you have not, an important investment concept, “ time horizon,” is particularly salient at the moment. Many advisors pay lip service to concepts like time horizon, diversification and risk tolerance. To us, they are at the core of a sound investment strategy. But what does time horizon really mean? To us, it means the time period...

The State of the Economy

As Seen In The Fort Bend Independent

It appears the economy is improving, but appearances can be deceiving. Many notable economic statistics have made moves in the right direction, but when you peel back the underlying layers of information, the shine comes off the glass.

Unemployment

According to information published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate has fallen from a high of approximately 10 percent in 2009 to just under 8 percent...

Six Overlooked Tax Breaks

As Seen In The Fort Bend Business Journal

Celebrate this tax season by looking for every nook and cranny in the tax code to save you money. Below are a few commonly missed tax breaks.

Charitable Donations

If you gave a car, cash, or other gift to a qualified charity in 2012, you can deduct the value of the gift on your tax return. Even the shirt off your back can be deductible if you properly recorded it. You can only deduct charitable gifts if you...

More Cliffs Ahead: Caution Advised

As Seen In The Fort Bend Independent

With no time to spare, our elected leaders avoided the fiscal cliff and all is right in the world. Well not exactly, but at least the agreement avoided major tax increases on all taxpayers.

Rather dishearteningly, the package did not address the real problem in Washington: spending. Apparently, the spending side will be addressed in the next few months as we bump up against the debt ceiling in March. Keep in mind that if you work,...

Now Is The Time To Contribute to Your Tax-Deferred Savings Account

As seen in the Fort Bend Business Journal

It’s a new year and another opportunity to contribute to your tax-deferred savings accounts. When you contribute to your 401k, IRA or other tax-deferred savings account, the government is essentially matching your contribution at your marginal tax rate and your contribution grows tax-free until it is distributed. Whether you qualify to make a tax-deferred contribution in 2013 is dependent on many factors; an experienced and qualified financial advisor...

The Next 10 Years

As seen in the Fort Bend Independent

With respect to George Friedman, socio-economic/political forecaster and author of  “The Next 100 Years,” our crystal ball is much too foggy. Many of us don’t know what we’re doing next week, let alone next year. And none of us have a clue what our neighbors are going to do.

Predicting the future is impossible…at least that’s what all the investment professionals say. “Past performance is not an...

Protecting Your Assets With Umbrella Liability Insurance

As seen in the Fort Bend Independent

 “You never know” - this is the reason insurance exists. Why would we pay premiums for insurance if we knew the future? We could navigate around costly events without ever having to pay for products that lose us...

Post-Election Fallout: The Future of Taxes, Spending and Investment Markets

As seen in the Fort Bend Independent

Perhaps the best news that has come out of the 2012 election cycle is that at least some uncertainty has been removed from the market. We now have a general understanding of the rules going forward. While the “fiscal cliff” remains unresolved, there are a few likely directions policy makers will take:

• The new taxes attached to the Affordable Care Act will likely take effect. This includes a 2.3 percent sales tax on medical...

The Fiscal Cliff

As Seen In the Fort Bend Independent

The issues we face now are not new to America. The debt ceiling has been raised 76 times since 1962; 11 times during the last 12 years alone. The current unemployment rate of nearly 8 percent is high, but not as high as 10.8 percent in 1982 or 25 percent during the Great Depression. Both the amount and variety of taxes today feel burdensome, but nowhere close to what taxpayers experienced in 1944, when the lowest marginal rate was 23 percent and the highest was...

Too Good To Be True Investments

As Seen In the Fort Bend Independent

It’s an old adage, but one that repeats throughout history: “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.” It’s human nature to believe we’ve discovered something no one else has. In our endless search to accomplish more while doing less, we are constantly enticed by what appear to be hidden shortcuts. And just like the latest and greatest diet pills, they ultimately lead to failure and worse, hopelessness.

Investing...

Recession: Made in China?

As Seen in the Fort Bend Business Journal

Slow growth has dominated storylines around the world for much of the last four years. As the developed world comes to grips with significant structural issues, emerging markets have become relatively…boring. No impactful news has come out of Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRICs) in the last several quarters, which should give the prudent investor pause.

China is now the second largest economy in the world, moving at a breakneck pace...

Making Money Matter to Your Kids

As Seen in the Fort Bend Independent

It has been proven that at young ages we develop a psychological mindset around money, whether through specific events, observing other’s attitudes, or through instruction. Unfortunately, many of us take the wrong message from these events, by observing those with poor management skills and getting our instruction from the advertisements of credit card companies. 

As a whole, we live in a financially illiterate society that spends very...

Not Coming Soon to a Theater Near You – Euro Debt Part Two

As Seen in the Fort Bend Independent

We Americans look forward to the summer blockbuster movie season and its annual dose of thrills, chills and usual high-octane fun. But playing out in the European markets is an epic saga filled with as much doom-and-gloom drama as anything playing at the multiplex. And no, we’re not talking about Greece anymore.

Unfortunately for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, recent rioting in the streets was not due to a zombie...

Who Can I Trust?

As Seen in the Fort Bend Independent

Trust is defined as “being able to place confidence; to do something without fear or misgivings.” The most critical element of the proper functioning of our financial markets is trust in the system, belief in the information we rely upon to make decisions and being assured that those giving the advice operate without conflicts of interest.

Numerous recent activities within the financial markets and corporate America have raised fears that...