QUESTION: Can you beat the S&P 500 and other top index funds? ANSWER: It depends on the time frame. While it’s possible to outperform the S&P, research shows that the outperformance will be lumpy with some significant periods of underperformance. To understand why, here is a brief history lesson. Decades ago Wall Street spread the…
Investing in last year’s hot stocks, indexes or managers is a sure way of underachieving in tomorrow’s financial markets. Exceptions exist, but academic studies verify this time and again. So what is the secret to better investment performance? Don’t invest for the short run, and anticipate the future. We at AMG spend considerable time and…
QUESTION: I’m getting married again, but my kids are worried it will adversely affect their inheritances. What should I do? ANSWER: Before you do anything, take a moment and remember that it is your wealth before it becomes their inheritance, and while it is important to communicate your decisions and priorities to your family, it…
Since the Great Recession, American banks have been squeezed by failures, mergers and now a wave of lenders making loans only via the Internet. The number of banks has fallen from 7,279 in 2007 to less than 5,000 today. Community banks, those with less than $10 billion in assets, have been hardest hit, but those…
Alternative assets have exhibited very different return characteristics from public equities since the 2007 financial crisis. A decade ago, massive declines in financial assets and movement in asset-class prices were highly correlated, yet alternative strategies served to protect capital against some of the declines. Hedge funds protected on the downside as expected, but private equity…
A new refund scam has emerged that threatens to ensnare thousands of unwary taxpayers who use direct deposit.
QUESTION: I just lost my state and local tax deductions in the recent tax reform, and I have no mortgage interest to deduct. Is there anything I can do to lower my taxes? ANSWER: The new tax law eliminates miscellaneous deductions, and limits state and local tax deductions to $10,000. This means married taxpayers without…
Thanks to recent federal tax reform, you can now use your kids’ college funds, or 529 plans, to pay for up to $10,000 a year for primary and high school expenses.
