Buffett’s Basketball Billion by Jim Whiddon
March has truly gone mad as the inimitable Warren Buffett has teamed up with Quicken Loans to produce perhaps one of the most brilliant marketing boondoggles and at the same time one of the most bogus prize offers ever devised....
Grit is Critical to Your Success by Dan Solin
Abraham Lincoln first ran for the Illinois General Assembly in 1832. He lost. Subsequently, he lost a race for the House of Representatives and two races for the Senate. The love of his life died in 1835. He had a...
Changing Lanes by Neal Merbaum
“My name is Neal, and I’m a lane changer. It’s been two weeks since I changed lanes — and that’s only because it’s been two weeks since I was on the highway!” If there were an organization similar to Alcoholics...
Planning Through the Generations
Multigenerational planning involves the transfer of wealth, but it also extends to intangible concepts such as family values and legacy wishes. Conversations about multigenerational planning begin with the first generation. The success of an estate plan can depend on whether...
Later Life Planning: No One Said It Would Be Easy – Brian Zdrowak
This past October, as I was flying back from Florida, I tried to wrap my mind around how a family birthday party resulted in tears and surprise after my mom suggested that she and my dad wanted to move in...
College Planning 201 A Q-and-A With Lynn O’Shaunessy
College planning can be stressful. There are too many schools and too many forms. We spoke with Lynn O’Shaughnessy, the author of The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price, about the challenges...
Giving Your Child an Allowance
I earned my first allowance of $2 per month by doing weekly chores. As an 8-year-old, my chores included making my bed, emptying my garbage can, dusting and vacuuming my room. My dad would have surprise “military” inspections to check...
Retirement Plans: Crucial Conversations
Alan Spector and Keith Lawrence wrote Your Retirement Quest based on a decade of research and interviews with more than 200 retirees. For more about Alan and Keith and their book, go to YourRetirementQuest.com. In this article, Alan and Keith discuss the...
Bond Funds Aren’t Naturally Riskier Than Individual Bonds
In spending significant time talking to clients and wealth advisors about fixed income, one common misconception is that bond funds are more exposed to interest rate risk than laddered individual bond portfolios. The logic basically starts and ends with the...
Positive Developments for Municipal Bond Investors
Public pension underfunding at the state and local level has rightly received an enormous amount of attention over the past few years. Most public pension funds are significantly underfunded when pension liabilities are valued using economically reasonable assumptions. In fact,...
