IRS Increases 401k Contribution Limits for 2018

Today, the IRS increased 401k contribution limits to $18,500 for 2018. It is good news for individuals looking to maximize their retirement contributions. Unfortunately, IRA contribution limits remain unchanged. Recommendation: Set a reminder on your phone or calendar to review your 401k/403b contribution in mid-to-late December to ensure you are maximizing your 2018 retirement savings.…

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The New DOL Fiduciary Rule

On June 9th of this month, the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule went into a phased implementation period with an effective date of January 1, 2018. The rule was designed to protect investors’ retirement savings. While the rule is thousands of words long, the main focus is this: require anyone providing investment advice to individuals…

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BeManaged Recognized for 10th Year of CEFEX Certification

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to represent BeManaged in Nashville for our tenth year of being CEFEX certified. Your next question is likely, “Ok, what is CEFEX and why does that matter?” According to the CEFEX (Centre for Fiduciary Excellence) Site: CEFEX is an independent global assessment and certification organization. It works closely with…

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How to Review the Performance of your Investments

Your investment statements are arriving, so many of us will take a look at our investment accounts to see how we (or our advisor) did. Unfortunately, it can be a bit confusing to determine if we did well, average or poorly. Let’s look at the items that will help you determine how you did. How…

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Stock and Bond Markets Remain Overvalued – October 2016

The average of four fundamental valuation measures shows a market nearly two standard deviations (82%) above its historical norm: Source: Advisor Perspectives, October 6, 2016 https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2016/10/04/market-remains-overvalued Remember, asset price inflation (speculative return) contributes a very small amount towards total return over the long haul. Since 2012, however, speculative returns have been in the double digits…

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Reduced Future Returns Expected for Retirement Savings

Investment advisors and financial salespeople need to help retirement savers understand that we have entered a new era for investment returns, an era of much lower earnings growth for companies and significantly lower interest rates for stock and bond investments. Let’s look at historic investment returns for portfolios with differing levels of market risk: John…

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What is “The Right Price” to Pay for a Stock?

The amount of money we decide to place in common stocks in your investment portfolio is partially driven by the prices we have to pay for those stocks. The higher the price we pay for a dollar’s worth of earnings generated by a stock, the lower the chance that we receive the returns we need…

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