We like to think that since the advent of modern portfolio management practices, investing in stocks and bonds has become a cerebral, analytical process with no room for emotion. The truth is that most investors, even institutional investors, are buffeted by emotional turbulence from time to time, and that truth is reflected in the volatility…
Month: September 2017
Continuing Low Interest Rates
Dear Garden State Trust Company: I am so tired of these low interest rates. Can we expect another uptick sometime soon? Earlier this year there was talk of one more bump before the end of the year as I recall. —CAUTIOUS SAVER Dear Cautious: I am afraid that you may have to get used to…
Saving a Flawed Estate Plan
Given the unrelenting pace of change in the tax laws and in the economy, coupled with the ordinary changes in personal and family circumstances, any estate plan is bound to go out of date sooner or later. Sometimes planning failures may be remedied post mortem, sometimes not. Here’s a happy example. Oskar Brecher died in…
Someone to Trust
How could someone who earned $650 million over 17 years be broke? That’s the question the actor Johnny Depp recently put to a team of forensic accountants and his new business manager, according to a Vanity Fair article (“How Did Johnny Depp Find Himself in a Financial Crisis?,” August 2017). The team determined that Depp’s…