Year-End Planning Tips: Your Charitable Fund
October 24, 2018  | By Kevin Smith

A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) is kind of like your own personal endowment, but without the administrative costs and hassles. A DAF is an investment account that receives your charitable donations, allows you to take the tax deduction in the…Read More

Year-End Planning Tips: Employee Benefits
October 24, 2018  | By Kevin Smith

If you have open enrollment between now and the end of the year, here are some important considerations. Health insurance – if your employer offers a high-deductible plan with an HSA account and matching funding, this may be worth strong…Read More

Year-End Planning Tips: Roth Conversions
October 24, 2018  | By Kevin Smith

The Roth IRA is fantastic. When you deposit funds to a Roth IRA, the IRS tells us that you will never be taxed again on that money. This can be particularly compelling if you are expecting significant taxable income in…Read More

Year-End Planning Tips: Required Distributions
October 24, 2018  | By Kevin Smith

Required Minimum Distributions You did a great job building up that 401k, but the IRS eventually demands your tax dollars. This applies to people who are age 70 ½ or older by 12/31/2018. It also applies to people who have…Read More

2018 Q3 Trends – Expensive stocks outperformed cheap stocks
October 22, 2018  | By Kevin Smith

Is the ‘value premium’ dead? Investing with a preference for cheap stocks (named “value” by marketing departments) over expensive stocks (named “growth” by marketing departments) is referred to as ‘value investing’.History provides compelling evidence that investors have received higher returns…Read More

2018 Q3 Trends – Global stock market divergence
October 22, 2018  | By Kevin Smith

The difference between stock market returns from these broad regional categories have reached historical significance in 2018. As disciplined investors, we see an opportunity to buy stocks at historically attractive prices and remember that trends tend to reverse and the…Read More

2018 Q3 Trends – Interest Rates Up
October 22, 2018  | By Kevin Smith

We have observed a gradual interest rate increase since mid-2017. The change was first experienced in higher yielding cash savings accounts, which was great news for emergency funds and rainy day funds. More recently we have seen an increase in…Read More

NEW! North Austin Location
October 22, 2018  | By Kevin Smith

In an effort to better serve our clients who live and work north of the river, we have opened a meeting location at the intersection of Mopac and Far West. This is a Regus coworking office space for the purpose…Read More