In the aftermath of the decision of the Supreme Court, many questions have surfaced regarding its direct impact on Americans. There are some benefits to be realized, but the cost attached to these benefits will affect some tax payers.
The advantages of diversification within an investment portfolio are not always obvious. Certainly, during dramatic market declines, diversified portfolios have the ability to provide investors with some loss mitigation. Director of Alternative Investments Chris Jordan provides insight on how a diversified portfolio with alternative investments would have performed over the past 20 years.
Tax season often generates documents containing personal information, prompting a clearing out of desks, filing cabinets and offices. Instead of spending hours feeding a stack of sensitive documents into a ‘home-sized’ shredder (or tearing them into tiny pieces) take advantage of Moneta's shred service!
We can agree that 2011 was a challenging year: high equity volatility; low bond yields; negative headlines from Europe; and a very charged political climate all contributed to investor anxiety. These worries often leave many restless and looking for the next “new” thing as it relates to investments (as if that exists!). In a perfect world, every client would want Moneta to be able to say, “We know exactly when the market is about to decline and we will move you to cash and then put you back in as soon as it hits absolute bottom so you don’t miss the ride back up.” But without benefit of a crystal ball, no one can do that consistently over a long (probably any) period of time, and to think otherwise or pretend it’s even a remote possibility is naïve.
While 2008 is etched in many investors’ minds, 2011 was also a very difficult year, although on the surface it looks relatively unremarkable. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 6 percent, and the broader, more representative S&P 500 was basically flat (both quoted on a price basis). Although the S&P 500 stood at 1257.64 on the last trading day of 2010 and 1257.60 exactly one year later, 2011 was a year full of crises that sapped investor confidence. Still, the markets showed tremendous resiliency in the face of numerous challenges: European debt crisis, debt ceiling debate, Japanese tsunami, Arab Awakening. More importantly, despite tepid returns, domestic equity valuations improved as earnings increased, bond yields provided little competition for risk capital, and the economic data showed improvement.