The CFA Institute recently published “The Integrity List: 50 Ways to Restore Trust in the Investment Industry.” Wall Street has received a lot of bad press in the recent years. Whether it was the creation of destructive financial instruments, large bailouts, or a ‘failed’ Facebook IPO, Main Street has many reasons to feel upset. The root of many of these problems is the lack of understanding and education from the retail investor. Clearly, there was a fair share of people and companies who acted inappropriately, but too many other organizations and industry participants were categorized along with a small minority.
MoneyShow.com Interview
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by MoneyShow.com’s Kate Stalter. Kate does many interviews with market experts as well as financial advisors around the country. We briefly discussed the Snider Investment Method, Snider Advisors, and our new SIM ETF Portfolio. You can listen to the interview or read the transcript here. (Capture Gains with ETFs and Covered Calls)
My First Snider Investment Method Trade
I first started working at Snider Advisors back in May 2005. Since then, I’ve either placed or reviewed over 100,000 Snider Method trades for clients’ accounts. But, today I did something brand new; I placed my first trades in a personal account.
Overspending in Retirement
As an advisor with a specialty in an income investment strategy, a majority of our clients rely on their portfolios as one of their primary sources of income in retirement. That also means their portfolio needs to be around throughout their entire lifetime. I manage both portfolios as well as client’s expectations in order to help them avoid the devastating possibility of running out of money.
“We are going to have a good year!”
Do you own shares of stock in the company you work for? Do they make up your entire 401(k) or just some of your “play money”? I’m amazed at the amount of clients and prospects I meet with that have a significant portion of their portfolio invested in their company’s stock. Familiarity and ‘insider knowledge’ seem to be the top reasons the hold the positions. They quickly forget stock picking is nearly impossible and even those with the greatest level of knowledge get it wrong.
ETF Portfolio
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are quickly becoming a significant piece in investment portfolios. As of December 2011, the total assets in ETFs exceeded $1 Trillion. Like index mutual funds, they track a basket of assets. Unlike index funds, they can be traded throughout the day and are optionable. This opens up the possibility to make them an integral part of a Snider Investment Method portfolio.
There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Investment expenses have always been a hot button issue within our organization. We’ve spent years stressing the importance of understanding and controlling the fees and expenses within investment strategies. The inability to compare fees across different investment products is one of my major complaints about the entire industry.
Gold Rush
I recently wrote about how Cash was Today’s Hottest Investment. I made this assumption based off the billions of dollars investors are adding to cash accounts (checking, saving, and money market) and removing from equity funds. This is a great way to track investor behavior. Although cash seems to be where investors are moving money, I hear the most questions about Gold.
Your Awful Annuity Investment
Are you considering making an investment in an annuity? Do you truly understand the product and all the guarantees, fees, and expenses? In discussions with prospective clients looking to change their investment strategies many have been comparing our strategy with annuities. Even after our conversations, many investors still do not understand the disadvantages of these investments.
Time to start Year-End Planning
The last few months of the year are always busy – holidays, travel, time with friends and family. My recommendation: knock out your Family CFO year-end tasks before you get caught up in all the rush. If you start now, you will have one less thing to worry about. Here is a list to help you get started:
