Considering a Move to Save on State Taxes?
Now that the federal deduction for state and local taxes is gone, should I consider changing residency from my high income-tax state to one with lower or no state taxes?
Opportunity Zones Offer Big Benefits & Big Challenges
The Opportunity Zone investment program ushered in by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provides an unprecedented ability to reduce capital gains taxes. If an investor realizes and rolls a capital gain into a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) this year and holds the investment for 10 years, he or she gets a step-up in…
Has The Next Bubble Arrived?
Recently, the AMG team was asked by a client to address a recently published opinion article by Robert J. Samuelson of the Washington Post titled “Has The Next Bubble Arrived?” The article references the work of Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute and his warning “that the economy might be on the edge of a…
Beating The Benchmark Takes Patience and Discipline
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…
The Secret to Investing: Deducing Tomorrow Today
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…
Remember It’s Your Wealth Before Their Inheritance
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…
Community Banking Institutions Offer What Others Can’t
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 Show Resilience, Performance Over Past Decade
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…
Beware of Tax Refund Scam, IRS Warns
A new refund scam has emerged that threatens to ensnare thousands of unwary taxpayers who use direct deposit.
Save Yourself Some Money with a Donor-Advised Fund
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…