Welcome to our NCM BLOG page where we will address timely investment and financial planning topics...
IRMAA stands for Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. In short, if your income is high enough you will be subject to elevated premiums for Medicare. That’s right, you will pay more for the same coverage.
In this blog we review popular Wall Street lingo such as: What does it mean to "outperform or underperform"? Is something labeled "Private" always special? What are the different Fee Models and how do they relate to the Fiduciary Rule? Our thoughts and opinions on each......
In 2017, President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which put in place many beneficial tax changes that are set to expire in 2026. Among the changes implemented, the most applicable are the cuts to individual income tax rates, a doubling of the standard deduction and a large increase to the estate tax exemption. If Congress doesn’t extend these, the benefits to taxpayers will expire on December 31, 2025. In this blog, we will focus on the income, estate, gift & charitable planning opportunities to consider, as well as a very recent update from the IRS on mandatory distributions from inherited IRA accounts.
When it comes to managing a financial plan, some people choose to do this without the help of a professional. This might be a viable option if they have the discipline, interest, expertise, time and the ability to remove emotion from important financial decisions. For those people, the DIY approach may, indeed, work. However, for the many others who may lack in one (or more!) of these aforementioned areas, it may be beneficial to set up a consultation with an experienced wealth advisor.
As we turned the page to 2024, the markets needed a new catalyst to keep the uptrend going. And sure enough, we got one: the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As the baton was passed from the market's reliance on both lower interest rates and lower inflation to AI, stocks began to rally around the incredible enthusiasm for this new technology and what it could mean for corporate profits.
“Your personal experiences with money make up maybe .000000001% of what’s happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works.” This, of course, addresses a powerful question: When it comes to investing, how much influence do our past experiences have on our current attitudes/strategies? (Housel, Morgan, The Psychology of Money 2020)